Impaca

speciosus: showy, good-looking

Small, deciduous tree, often multi-stemmed with drooping foliage. Bark dark, rough and vertically fissured. Leaves imparipinnate with 3-7 pairs of leaflets plus a terminal leaflet; leaflets lanceolate with an asymmetric base, up to 7 cm; midrib and lateral veins yellowish and conspicuous; margin entire or irregularly scalloped. Flowers in striking, pendulous, terminal sprays, blue to deep mauve. Fruit a flat narrow pod up to 7 cm, straw-coloured to grey-black when ripe.

Common

Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, S Africa

Perennial, Trees, Woody throughout, Nodules present, Stems erect or ascending, Stems or branches arching, spreading or decumbent, Stems greater than 2 m tall, Stems solid, Stems or young twigs glabrous or sparsely glabrate, Leaves alternate, Leaves petiolate, Stipules inconspicuous, absent, or caducous, Stipules deciduous, Stipules free, Leaves compound, Leaves odd pinnate, Leaf or leaflet margins entire, Leaflets opposite, Leaflets alternate or subopposi te, Leaflets 5-9, Leaflets 10-many, Leaves hairy on one or both surfaces, Inflorescences racemes, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence or flowers lax, declined or pendulous, Bracts very small, absent or caducous, Bracteoles present, Flowers zygomorphic, Calyx 5-lobed, Calyx hairy, Petals separate, Corolla papilionaceous, Petals clawed, Petals pinkish to rose, Petals blue, lavander to purple, or violet, Banner petal suborbicular, broadly rounded, Wing petals narrow, oblanceolate to oblong, Keel tips obtuse or rounded, not beaked, Stamens 9-10, Stamens completely free, separate, Filaments glabrous, Style terete, Fruit a legume, Fruit stipitate, Fruit unilocular, Fruit freely dehiscent, Fruit tardily or weakly dehiscent, Fruit elongate, straight, Fruit oblong or ellipsoidal, Fruit rugose wrinkled or reticulate, Fruit coriaceous or becoming woody, Fruit exserted from calyx, Fruit glabrous or glabrate, Fruit 3-10 seeded, Seeds ovoid to rounded in outline, Seed surface smooth, S eeds olive, brown, or black.