白刺槐 bai ci huai

Shrubs or small trees, 1-2 m high, rarely 3-4 m. Branches glabrous; sterile branches spiny at tip, some spines branched. Leaves 2-6.5(-8) cm; stipules subulate, some becoming spiny, sparsely pubescent, persistent; leaflets 11-19, usually elliptic-ovate or obovate-oblong, 5-20 mm, sparsely villous abaxially, glabrous adaxially, apex rounded or retuse, usually with mucro. Racemes terminal at branchlets. Flowers small, ca. 15 mm or less. Calyx campanulate, blue-purple, unequally 5-toothed, gla­brous. Corolla white or light yellow, some red-purple on stan­dard, rarely blue-purple; standard obovate-oblong, ca. 14 × 6 mm, rounded at apex, with slender claw at base, reflexed; wings equal to standard, obovate-oblong, ca. 3 mm wide, auriculate on one side; keel slightly shorter than wings, falcate-obovate, au­riculate. Stamens 10, equal, slightly fused at base. Ovary longer than stamens, densely yellow-brown hairy, many ovuled; style curved, glabrous. Legumes slightly compressed, 6-8 × 0.6-0.7 cm, 2-valvate along sutures, sparsely hairy. Seeds 3-5, dark brown, ovoid, ca. 4 mm. Fl. Mar-Aug, fr. Jun-Oct.

● Valley scrub, hill slopes, sandy places in valleys; below 3400 m. Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang.

Lower Taxa

• Sophora davidii var. chuansiensis (C. Y. Ma) C. Y. Ma ex B. J. Bao & Vincent
• Sophora davidii var. davidii
• Sophora davidii var. liangshanensis (C. Y. Ma) C. Y. Ma ex B. J. Bao & Vincent