短蕊槐 duan rui huai

Trees, to 20 m or more. Bark gray-brown; branches of current year green. Leaves to 20 cm; stipules caducous; petiole obviously inflated at base, bud hidden; leaflets 9-15; stipels subulate; petiolule ca. 3 mm; blades gray-white abaxially, green adaxially, ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, 2.5-4(-6) × 1.5-2(-2.5) cm, glabrescent on both surfaces, base obtuse, apex acuminate. Panicles large, to 25 cm. Bractlets caducous. Calyx shortly campanulate, ca. 4 × 4 mm; teeth absent or obscure, gray-white ciliate. Corolla white or pale yellow; standard ovate, ca. 13 × 11 mm, base cordate, apex retuse, claw ca. 3 mm; wings oblong, ca. 11 × 4 mm, 2-auriculate, claw slender, ca. 4 mm; keel similar to wings, broader, 2-auriculate. Stamens 10, nearly free. Ovary shorter than 1/2 of stamens, white pilose; style curved. Legumes moniliform, sturdy, 4-6 × ca. 1.5 cm, obviously constricted between seeds, apex beaked, neck 1-2 cm, glabrous, indehiscent. Seeds 1 or 2(-4), brown-black, ovoid, compressed, ca. 11 × 7 mm. Fl. Aug-Nov, fr. Oct-Jan.

● Hill slopes, roadsides; ca. 300 m. Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang.

This species may prove to be synonymous with Sophora japonica.