Tephrosia Pers.
Genus composed of some 360 tropical and subtropical species, especially African. They are mainly herbaceous, annual or perennial, often with a woody base. In North Africa there are several herbaceous perennial species, somewhat ephemeral, which are only woody at the base. Their distribution is essentially tropical, Sahelian, appearing exclusively in the southern region of the territory covered by this study, the southern Sahara. Some species can reach the Mediterranean through Egypt. The most robust species are T. purpurea and T. nubica. Other species are usually herbaceous but for being sometimes somewhat woody at the base of the stems, they can be cited here:
T. uniflora Pers. (T. quartiniana Cufod. ex Greuter & Burdet, T. vicioides A.Rich.), herbaceous plant, annual, perennial or biannual, with a woody base, 20-50 cm; flowers usually white, solitary, sessile at the leaf axils of flowering branches; southern Sahara, from Mauritania and Senegal to Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia, reaching the central Sahara (in Algeria) and the northern Sahara (in Egypt) towards the N. Towards the E it reaches India.
T. villosa (L.) Pers. subsp. ehrenbergiana (Schweinf.) Brummitt (T. ehrenbergiana Schweinf., T. incana sensu Baker), herbaceous plant, annual or perennial, lignified at the base of the stems, 30-80 cm, with calyx and pods densely villous and pink flowers. Egypt, southern and eastern Africa, Arabia.
T. kassasii Boulos, the only species with simple leaves, herbaceous, perennial, 30-60 cm, woody at the base, with violet flowers; it was cited as endemic to a single location of the Nile, in the S of Egypt, but after the construction of the Aswan Dam and the later flooding of the Nile Valley in that area, it has not been seen again.
T. uniflora y T. villosa subsp. ehrenbergiana are relatively common and widespread species; not considered threatened. On the other hand T. kassasii is rarer and with a much smaller distribution area; this species requires further study. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Red List of vascular plants of Egypt (Flora Aegyptiaca Vol 1, 2000) T. kassasii is listed as “Extinct”.
Key to species
1 Pod ovoid with a single seed Tephrosia nubica
1 Pod linear with numerous seeds 2
2 Flowers 1-3, axillary, pedicellate Tephrosia uniflora
2 Flowers numerous, in racemes 3
3 Leaves imparipinnate 4
3 Leaves simple Tephrosia kassasii
4 Calyx and pod densely villous, hairs brown Tephrosia villosa
4 Calyx and pod with applied hairs Tephrosia purpurea
Updated by: H. Sainz.