Lessertia

Lessertia is a genus of herbs and shrubs in the Fabaceae family, commonly known as balloon peas. Some of the plants are spiny.

The leaves are pinnately compound, consisting of many leaflets and an extra one at the tip of the rachis. Stipules are present.

The inflorescences grow in racemes from leaf axils. The flowers are red, pink or purple. The calyx is bell-shaped, its lobes nearly equal. The banner petal may be two-lobed at the top, sessile or clawed at the base. The keel petal is straight or incurved and clawed. The wings are usually eared, and clawed, sometimes quite small.

The stamens are joined with the upper one separate, the anthers all the same. The ovary is stalked in some species, the ovules in it two to many. The style is incurved, bearded in front below its tip.

The fruit pods are membranous, inflated or compressed, opening at their tips. The seeds are kidney-shaped with thread-like attachments to the pod.

The about 55 species all grow in Africa, about 47 of them in southern Africa.

The plant in picture is Lessertia frutescens, big in medicinal applications (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Manning, 2007).