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Cape Sweetpea

Podalyria calyptrata

Description:

Podalyria calyptrata is a sturdy, fast-growing, well-branched shrub of 2-3 m or a small tree of 4-5 m. The leaves are simple, alternate and oval or egg-shaped, 10-45 mm long and up to 25 mm wide, green-grey in colour and sparsely covered with silky white hairs on the upper and lower surfaces that give the leaves a silvery sheen. Young growth is velvety. The flowers are large, 25 mm or more across, very showy, mauve-pink to pink, most have a white spot in the centre, usually visible on the standard petal, and very occasionally you find a bush where the whole flower is white. Flowers are borne in winter-spring-early summer (July-Oct.). Flowering time varies in that some bushes flower earlier than others in the same area.

Habitat:

Cape Peninsula Western Cape

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1 Comment

Smith'sZoo
Smith'sZoo 11 years ago

ID corrected

Smith Zoo
Spotted by
Smith Zoo

Western Cape, South Africa

Spotted on Sep 16, 2012
Submitted on Sep 16, 2012

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