Tephrosia apollinea

Tephrosia apollinea is a legume species, native to southwest Asia (the Levant, Arabia, Socotra, Iran, Pakistan, northwestern India) and northeast Africa (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia). The leaflets of the plant are obovate-oblong and equal-sided, and of a silky texture. The fruits (legumes) are typically one to two inches (2.5 to 5.1 cm) long and contain six or seven brownish seeds. The species typically grows in areas where the soils are relatively deep, especially in semi-arid and wadi areas, and on terraces and slight inclines and hills. Tephrosia apollinea is known to be toxic to goats. Although it has been used in Oman to treat bronchitis, cough, earache, nasal congestion and wounds and bone fractures, as of 1993 its wider impact on humans had not been assessed. It can be used to make indigo dyes, and the leaves and those of other plants are used to make hot drinks by the Bedouin in parts of Sinai and the Negev. The leaflets of the plant are obovate-oblong, somewhat wedge-shaped, equal-sided, and of a silky texture. The mid-rib is usually folded longitudinally, and they are characterized by parallel transverse veins. The fruits (legumes) are typically one to two inches long (2.5 to 5.1 cm) and contain six or seven brownish seeds. The plant displays purple flowers during season; they are described as their most attractive in the month of January. It typically grows to 45 – 50 cm in height, and can grow on mountains with an altitude of over 3000 ft. (914 m). Both diploid (22 chromosomes) and tetraploid (44 chromosomes) cytotypes have been reported. The roots of Tephrosia apollinea are deep, penetrating soils to a depth of 3 metres or more, aiding the absorption of moisture from the soil. Moisture is stored in the cortex of the roots, which is protected by a thin periderm. Water storage in the cortex enables growth and reproduction during times of drought, which allow it to thrive in both arid and semi-arid conditions and to survive during winter and summer months at times of low rainfall. The roots grow at a faster rate than the shoots themselves, and even at the early stage of the plant displaying a shoot the length of a cm, the roots may already be 30 cm or more in length. A proposed 1993 treatment of T. apollinea as a subspecies of Tephrosia purpurea noted some regional variations, with plants in the Eastern Desert of Egypt possibly producing smaller pods, leaves, and leaflets, and plants from oases having densely pubescent spreading hairs. Among the features they described as differentiating the apollinea subspecies from the nominate purpurea subspecies were that apollinea has somewhat longer pods (3.5–5 or sometimes 5.5 cm, rather than 3–4 cm), a wider range in the quantity of seeds per pod (generally 7–9, as low as 3, rather than generally 5–6, or sometimes 7), the pods being curved upwards rather than downwards, and leaflets having 9 rather than 7 lateral veins. The plant was initially named Galega apollinea by Alire Raffeneau Delile in 1813, and moved to the genus Tephrosia by Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link in 1822. Its treatment as a subspecies of Tephrosia purpurea, called Tephrosia purpurea subsp. apollinea, was proposed by Hasnaa A. Hosni and Zeinab A. R. El-Karemy in 1993. This treatment has not been accepted by the databases The Plant List, International Legume Database & Information Service, or Tropicos. Hosni and El-Karemy treated T. apollinea and T. purpurea as a single species after finding that their previous descriptions 'agree in most of their characters and the distinction between typical forms is rather difficult...' The full name with authorities under their revised classification is Tephrosia purpurea (L.) Pers. subsp. apollinea (Delile) Hosni & El-Karemy.