Key to Aspalathus of KwaZulu-Natal and Transkeian region of the Eastern Cape

To ease identification of Aspalathus we provide a key to the five species recorded in the KwaZulu-Natal Province as well as two others which partially overlap with them in the Eastern Cape Province.

1. Plants spiny or thorny; leaflets slightly flattened, grooved abaxially – A. spinifera

1*. Plants neither spiny nor thorny; leaflets acicular or sub-terete, not grooved abaxially – 2

2. Plants taller than 150 cm, erect; flowers 9–13 mm long, gathered in distinctive floral “pseudospikes” – 3

2*. Plants shorter than 150 cm, decumbent, spreading or ascending; flowers 4–8 (9) mm long, never gathered in distinctive floral “pseudospikes” – 4

3. Leaflets glabrous or glabrescent (rarely with scattered spreading hairs); keel blades densely pubescent – A. chortophila

3*. Leaflets covered with silvery-grey, appressed pubescence; keel blades glabrous – A. dahlgrenii

4. Plants 40–130 cm tall, erect, sparingly or moderately branched; densely leafy with leaf clusters crowded and overlapping on branches; several to numerous pale lemon yellow flowers gathered one per leaf cluster along seasonal shoots; calyx lobes linear, sericeous, as long as flowers, with narrow sinuses – A. gerrardii

4*. Plants 20–120 cm tall, spreading, rarely decumbent, closely branched; laxly leafy with leaf clusters distinctly separated along branches; 1 (2) light yellow or yellow flowers in a terminal leaf cluster on short lateral seasonal shoots or “umbellate”; calyx lobes narrowly triangular or subulate, glabrous, sub-glabrous or pubescent, much shorter than flowers, with broad sinuses – 5

5. Flowers dark yellow; calyx lobes long subulate, thickened, dark green; calyx tube pinkish, calyx teeth as long as tube; bracts and bracteoles linear – A. abbottii

5*. Flowers yellow or light lemon yellow; calyx lobes narrowly triangular or shortly subulate, not thickened, yellowish green or silvery; calyx tube green or pale green, shorter than tube, bracts and bracteoles subulate or linear-subulate – 6

6. Leaflets glabrous; flowers gathered into a terminal head-like umbels of up to 5 flowers or solitary on lateral short shoots or in combinations thereof, yellow; bracts and bracteoles unequal, bracteoles situated on lower parts of the calyx; calyx glabrous or subglabrous; standard acute, glabrous – A. simii

6*. Leaflets densely white or grey-puberulous or short tomentose; flowers solitary on lateral short shoots, one or few on each seasonal shoot, pale lemon yellow; bracts and bracteoles equal, bracteoles situated on upper part of pedicel; calyx densely pubescent; standard obtuse to retuse, densely tomentose or short-sericeous – A. frankenioides