Spiny subshrub up to 0.8(1.5) m in height, \u00b1 erect, very ramose, with branching usually intricate. Trunk woody, branched from the base. Branches woody, rigid, glabrous, greenish-whitish or greenish-blueish, with rigid lateral and terminal spines, strong and sharp, pulverulent. Leaves small, oblong-linear, concave, coriaceous, glabrous, deciduous. Inflorescence in terminal and lateral racemes, with a spinescent axis, with up to 4 flowers, but frequently solitary or in pairs. Calyx with 5 caducous sepals: 3 outer sepals smaller than 2 inner ones which are petaloid (wings). Corolla intensely dark purple in colour; appears butterfly-shaped, with 3 petals, keel wide with yellow apex; upper petals smaller than the keel and fused to the base of staminal tube; crest, characteristic of the genus, is underdeveloped. Fruit a glabrous and fleshy capsule, suborbicular, highly compressed, with narrow wing, membranous and emarginate, green at first, then turning brown-purple; capsules emerge and mature at the bottom of the raceme, while the raceme is still flowering towards the top.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-12615","species","type-species","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n