Hererolandia Gagnon & G.P. Lewis, PhytoKeys 71: 29. 2016.

Fig. 36, 38, 50

Type.

Hererolandia pearsonii (L. Bolus) Gagnon & G.P. Lewis [≡ Caesalpinia pearsonii L. Bolus]

Description.

Multi-stemmed shrubs armed with curved, deflexed prickles. Stipules not seen. Leaves pinnate, borne in fascicles on short woody brachyblasts that are usually subtended by a pair of tiny (sometimes obscure) prickles; leaflets (4) 5-7 (9) pairs, opposite, eglandular. Inflorescence a short raceme. Flowers zygomorphic, bisexual; hypanthium short, persistent as a ring around the stipe of the fruit; sepals 5, free, the lower sepal cucullate and covering the other 4 sepals in bud, all sepals caducous; petals 5, yellow, free; stamens 10, free, pubescent on the lower half; ovary pubescent. Fruit a thinly woody, laterally compressed, almost circular to strongly sickle-shaped legume, dehiscing along the sutures, finely pubescent and covered in robust trichomes, usually 1-seeded. Seeds laterally compressed.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Included species and geographic distribution.

Monospecific ( H. pearsonii), endemic to Namibia, on the Great Escarpment (Fig. 50).

Ecology.

Semi-desert and desert areas, on stony, sandy soils.

Etymology.

The type locality of H. pearsonii is in the semiarid Hereroland, a region of eastern Namibia inhabited by the Herero people, who are nomadic cattle herders.

Human uses.

Unknown.

Notes.

The genus was described by Gagnon et al. (2016), based on its isolated and unresolved position in the Caesalpinia group phylogeny, and its distinctive sickle-shaped to circular, 1-seeded legume covered in robust trichomes. In Ringelberg et al. (2022) the genus is resolved as sister to a clade comprising Haematoxylum and Lophocarpinia .

Taxonomic references.

Bolus (1920); Curtis and Mannheimer (2005); Gagnon et al. (2016); Nkowki and Swelankomo (2003).