3612.000 Baphia Afzel. ex G. Lodd.

Shrubs, small trees or lianes. Leaves 1-foliolate, with a pulvinus at apex of petiole. Flowers in lax axillary or terminal racemes. Calyx splitting into 2 reflexed lobes or down one line. Petals white with a yellow or orange basal spot. Stamens 10, free. Pod linear-oblong to oblanceolate, sometimes falcate.

Derivation of name: from the Greek: baphe, a dye, referring to a red dye that can be obtained from B. nitida.

Comment: Shrubs, sometimes scrambling or climbing, or trees up to 10 m high. Leaves unifoliolate; leaflet with entire margin, rarely cordate at base; petiole with upper and lower pulvini, these occasionally contiguous and so appearing as one.
Species of this genus are generally thicket-forming, associated with sedimentary sandy soils, sometimes proliferating in woodland or thicket clearings.

Worldwide: 45 species, occurring in tropical and South Africa and Madagascar.

Zambia: 6 taxa.