Sophora davidii (Franch.) Skeels

  • Authority

    Isely, Duane. 1981. Leguminosae of the United States. III. Subfamily Papilionoideae: tribes Sophoreae, Podalyrieae, Loteae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 25 (3): 1-264.

  • Family

    Fabaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Sophora davidii (Franch.) Skeels

  • Description

    Species Description - Usually spiny shrub .8-2(-4) m with ascending or arching branches and villous or strigulose young growth. Spines short-determinate branches .5-2.5 cm. Leaves alternate or clustered; leafstalk 4-6 cm; leaflets 13-17, barely petioluled or sessile, ovate or elliptic, .6-1.4(-2) cm, 1.4-2 r, obtuse and mucronate, loosely villous-strigulose and pale below. Stipules 1-2 mm, soft-indurate or spiny. Racemes intercalary, 1-2 together, usually with foliage from mixed buds or spurs, 3-5 cm, with 5-10 spreading flowers 1.2-1.6 cm. Pedicels 4-7 mm, ebracteolate. Calyx slightly 2-lipped, commonly gibbous below, 4-5 mm, strigulose, bluish; teeth equal or irregular, ca. .5-1 mm. Corolla white, pale blue or bicolored, the petals subequal, upcurved with claws ultimately exceeding calyx; standard elliptic, up-curved 90°; wings upcurved, subauriculate and with an opposing hump; keel petals involute on anterior margin with acute, basal lobes on both margins. Stamens monadelphous ca. ½-¾ of length. Pistil stipitate ca. 2 mm; ovary straight, narrowly oblong, turgid, hirsutulous with hairs .5-.7 mm; ovules 9-12; style short. Legume cylindric and irregularly moniliform, usually with sterile intervals due to poor seed set, turgid but somewhat compressed, 2-5(-9) cm x ca. 4 cm diam, short- or long-beaked, persistent, valves coriaceous, brown, strigulose, individually dehiscent. Seeds 1-5. Hammermannia.

  • Discussion

    S. viciifolia Hance (1881); S. moorcroftiana subsp viciifolia (Hance) Yakovlev (1967). Non S. viciifolia Salisb. (1796). S. moorcroftiana var davidii Franch. (1883); 5. davidii (Franch.) Skeels (1913) non Komarov ex Pavlov (1908) nom nud. 2n = 18 (Tschechow, 1931, transcribed by Federov, 1969, as 16). This species is listed by Bailey (1949) and Rehder (1940), the latter saying “graceful free-flowering shrub adapted for sandy soil and dry situations.” Specimens seen are primarily institutional, but the plant is evidently also available commercially. The Indian Sophora moorcroftiana Benth., and the Chinese S. davidii (primarily S. viciifolia auct.) are closely related and dubiously distinct. Gagnepain (1914) and Yakovlev (1967) both relegated the latter to subspecific status, but Rudd (1972) regarded the two taxa as separate species. I have looked at both Indian and Chinese material and formed no firm judgment. The Indian plants are more densely villous and spiny. They are precisely matched by no U.S. specimens that, seemingly, are all of Chinese origin. I have called our introductions S. davidii.

  • Distribution

    E and w states as mapped. Native of China, introduced in temperate countries. Cult ornamental. (March-) April-June.

    China Asia|