Rafnia

Rafnia is a genus of hairless shrubs and shrublets in the Fabaceae family. Some resprout after fire.

The simple leaves are mostly alternate, often blue-green and stalkless. The leaves tend to turn black when dry. Rafnia leaves have no stipules.

The yellow flowers may grow solitary, in racemes from stem tips or leaf axils and sometimes head-like. The flower-shape resembles that of pea flowers. The bell-shaped calyces have lobes that are nearly equal, the lowest one often narrower.

The banner petals are nearly round to bilobed, the wings oblong to sickle-shaped and the keels incurved. All the petals have clawed bases. The stamens are unequal in two types, all joined in a tube slit down the top. The ovaries are sometimes stalked. The styles curve in, their stigmas small and head-like.

The fruits are compressed, narrow pods, lanceolate to oblong in shape. The seeds are without appendages.

There are about 19 Rafnia species, almost all in fynbos and in the winter rainfall region. Some species feature in traditional medicine and one as a liquorice substitute.

The plant in picture is Rafnia capensis (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2009).