Polhillides
Polhillides velutina is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae. It is the sole species in the genus Polhillides. It is an annual, perennial or sub-shrub, that is native to tropical regions of Africa and Madagascar, parts of Asia, New Guinea, and Australia. In Africa, its habitats include woodland and grassland in the Sudanian region, wooded grassland and grassland in the Victoria Basin forest–savanna mosaic, and wooded grassland and grassland in the Somalia-Masai region.
It is found at elevations of up to above sea level.
Description
Polhillides velutina can be between tall. It has stems that have dense spreading ferrugineous hairs when young, but hairless below. It has foliolate that have a large lamina and are long and wide. They are ovate to almost circular in shape, with almost flattened soft, short and erect hairs and velvet-like underneath. The petiole is long.The flowers are terminal and axillary false racemes. They have lobes which are 1.5 mm long an come in shades of violet, lilac, red or blue.
After flowering it produces a seed capsule of 2-7 sections, each having hooked hairs and long. Inside are brown seeds.
Taxonomy
The genus name of Polhillides is in honour of Roger Marcus Polhill, an English botanist at Kew Gardens with a focus on Fabaceae. Who collected plants in Africa. He also wrote a book in 2001 'Flora of tropical East Africa'. The Latin specific epithet velutina refers to velvety,The genus was circumscribed by Hiroyoshi Ohashi and Kazuaki Ohashi in J. Jap. Bot. vol.94 on page 71 in 2019.
The United States Department of Agriculture and Agricultural Research Service regard the species as a possible synonym of Hedysarum with no species listed.
Subspecies
Three subspecies or varieties are accepted:- Polhillides velutina subsp. longibracteata
- Polhillides velutina var. sikkimensis
- Polhillides velutina subsp. ''velutina''