白枝黄耆 bai zhi huang qi

Plants 30-45 cm tall, densely covered with mostly ± medi­fixed hairs. Stems branched at base, those of current year 9-16 cm, densely covered with white hairs 0.5-0.8 mm, at nodes also with black hairs. Leaves 4-6 cm, subsessile; stipules 4-7 mm, adnate to petiole for up to 1 mm, covered with white and pre­dominantly black hairs; rachis loosely to rather densely hairy like stem; leaflets in 4-6 pairs, 13-22 × 2-4 mm, abaxially loosely and adaxially sparsely covered with appressed white hairs 1-1.5 mm. Racemes short, densely 8-12-flowered; pedun­cle 9-15 cm, rather densely hairy like stem; bracts 4-5 mm, covered with mostly strongly asymmetrically bifurcate to basi­fixed, spreading, black and white hairs ca. 1 mm. Calyx at an­thesis ca. 12 mm, tubular, rather densely covered with mostly strongly asymmetrically bifurcate, ± spreading, white hairs up to 1.5 mm and with shorter, mostly more symmetrically medi­fixed, black hairs; teeth 2-2.5 mm; calyx soon becoming in­flated, at fruiting time ovoid, ca. 15 × 6-7 mm, loosely hairy. Petals yellow; standard obovate, ca. 20 × 6 mm, slightly con­stricted in middle, apex emarginate; wings 17-18 mm, limbs obliquely emarginate; keel 15-16 mm. Legumes included in ca­lyx, ca. 10 mm, ca. 3 mm high (immature), with a slender beak ca. 2 mm, 2-locular; valves densely covered with mostly basi­fixed, spreading, white hairs ca. 2 mm and with much shorter black hairs up to 0.5 mm.

Steppes. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan].