Eriosema buchananii Baker fil.

buchananii: after Rev. John Buchanan (1821-1903), a Presbyterian clergyman and plant collector.

Shrubby perennial herb, 50-150 cm high, growing from a woody rootstock. Stems more or less erect, densely covered in spreading yellowish hairs. Leaves mostly 3-foliolate; leaflets 1-9 cm long, ovate-lanceolate to almost round; lateral leaflets often obliquely elliptic, appresed woolly hairy above and on the raised veins beneath, also often with scattered small orange glands; petiole 2-10 mm long. Stipules 8-18 mm long, ovate to onlong-lanceolate, often falcate, hairy and closely veined. Flowers in axillary racemes 2-9 cm long on peduncles up to 20 cm long, densely covered in spreading yellowish-brown hairs. Calyx 5-6 mm long, dark-purplish, covered in spreading woolly hairs and dotted with glands. Standard 8-13 mm long oblong, cream, pink or white and purple, often lined with purple, rarely yellow; wings white or cream; keel greenish-brown. Pods broadly ovate-oblong, 12-14 mm long, covered in long hairs, short hairs and glands.

Locally frequent

Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mpumalanga, South Africa.