Astragalus melanocephalus
Astragalus melanocephalus
Morkafa
Caulescent perennial with slender, woody caudices and erect, adpressed-hairy stems 10-20 cm. Leaves 4-10 cm; leaflets 10-15 mm, narrowly elliptic to obovate, acute or obtuse, mucronate, bifurcate-sericeous, 4-5-paired; stipules 4-5 mm, lanceolate. Peduncles exceeding leaves, adpressed-hairy. Flowers subsessile in dense 10-13-flowered racemes which lengthen with age. Bracts 3-4 mm, lanceolate, black- and white-hairy. Calyx 14-18 mm, tubular at first, becoming slightly inflated, with long white simple and short black bifurcate hairs; teeth 4-5 mm, linear. Corolla purple or yellow; standard 20-30 mm. Legumes 12-18 x 4-5 mm, narrowly ovoid, densely white-hairy; beak 2-3 mm. Fl. 5-6. Woods, macchie, screes, 1000-1800 m.
Endemic. Var. stenophyllus is not worth recognising as there is a continuous range of leaf width within the species.
