Aeschynomene nyassana Taub.

nyassana: of Nyasaland (now Malawi).

Small shrub, growing from a woody rootstock. Stems several, mostly erect, 15-300 cm tall, hairless to densely covered in sticky glandular hairs. Plants often flowering early when still nearly leafless. Leaves 3-25 cm long, pinnate with 7-40 pairs of leaflets; leaflets 6-24 mm long oblong to ovate-oblong, mucronulate at the apex, hairless; stipules 7-24 mm long linear-lanceolate to ovate. Inflorescences terminal, many-flowered, branched, up to 35 cm long, and with shorter inflorescences from the upper leaf axils. Flowers pale yellow with purple veining; wings longer than the keel. Pods in 1-2 segments, each 12-27 × 9-13 mm, obovate, elliptic or semicircular, flat and papery, hairless or slightly pubescent on the margins.

DRC, southern Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mpumalanga, South Africa.