Sophora velutina - Velvety Sophora

Velvety Sophora is a shrub, about 2 m high; young branches, axis and leaves densely velvet-hairy. Leaves are 15-20 cm, compound, leaflets 13-41, opposite or nearly opposite, 1-4 x 0.5-2 cm, ovate-lanceshaped, elliptic, elliptic-lanceshaped, oblong, or ovate-oblong, papery, midvein raised, base rounded or blunt, tip tapering or pointed with mucro. Stipules are linear, 6-7 mm, hairy. Flowers are borne in racemes, leaf opposed, 15-20 cm long. Flowers are many, widely spaced; bracts similar to stipule, 6-8 mm, hairy; flower-stalk short, 2-3 mm. Sepal-cup is bell-shaped, about 1.3 cm; teeth 5, unequal, dark brown hairy. Standard petal is reflexed, obovate-lanceshaped or obovate-oblong, about 16 × 3-5 mm, tip retuse, narrowing to base; wings oblong, less than 1.5 cm, base eared; keel sickle shaped, slightly shorter than wings. Stamens are 10, free or slightly fused at base. Fruit is like a string of beads, slightly compressed, 6-10 x 0.7-1 cm, hairy or nearly hairless; seeds 2-4, yellow or yellow-brown, oblong-kidney-shaped. Velvety Sophora is found in the Indian Subcontinent to China (Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou) and Indo-China, Philippines.