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Soft Sophora
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Soft Sophora
D Native Photo: Amber Srivastava
Common name: Soft Sophora • Hindi: पीली सकीना Peeli sakina
Botanical name: Sophora mollis    Family: Fabaceae (Pea family)
Synonyms: Sophora mollis subsp. mollis, Sophora hortensis, Sophora buxbaumii

Soft Sophora is an erect deciduous shrub, about 3-4 ft tall, young shoots finely velvet-hairy. Leaves are compound, 12.5-26.0 cm long; stipules triangular, pointed, falling off. Leaflets are 19-35, opposite or alternate, 1.2-2.5 cm long, ovate or elliptic, entire; blunt or emargi¬nate, sparsely hairy on both sides. Flowers are borne in racemes, about 5-10 cm long, in leaf axils. Flowers are about 1.5-2.6 cm long, flower-stalk about 7-10 mm; bract about 2-3 mm, concave. Calyx 6-7 mm long, oblique, finely hairy. Ovary densely hairy. Pod is 7.5-13.0 cm long, like a string of beads, 5-10 jointed, 4 winged, hairless when mature. Soft Sophora is found in the Himalayas, from Pakistan to Nepal, at altitudes of 1700 m. Flowering: Feruary-March.

Identification credit: Amber Srivastava Photographed in Sahastradhara, Dehradun.

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