Smithia blanda - Pleasant Smithia

Pleasant Smithia is a shrublet, 40-60 cm tall, with stems densely golden bristly. Flowers are borne in leaf-axils, in scorpioid cymes, with flowers usually clustered at tip part; flower-cluster-stalk 1.5-4 cm, bristly; bracts ovate-round. Flowers are about 1 cm, flower-stalk 1-3 mm; bracteoles nearly round, 2.5-3.5 mm, membranous. Flowers are yellow; standard round, with short claw, base tapering, tip wedge-shaped to slightly notched; wings smaller than standard, with an ear; keels as long as wings, with an ear. Stipules lanceshaped, hairy. Leaves are compound, 4-10-foliolate; leaflet-stalks less than 1 mm; leaflet blades oblong to obovate-lanceshaped, 6-12 x 2.5-3 mm, papery, midvein bristly, base oblique, margin bristly, tip blunt to rounded and with a spinelike mucro. Pod is a pleated loment, 2.5-3 mm wide. Pleasant Smithia is found in mountains, plains, at altitudes of 800-2100 m, in NE India, China, SE Asia, South India, and Sri Lanka. Flowering: August-October.