Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Annual or perennial herbs, climbing with tendrils or suberect.

Stems: Stems not winged.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves compound (even-pinnate or rarely odd-pinnate). Alternate. Leaflets numerous, usually opposite, occasionally alternate or opposite and alternate. Rachis usually ending in a tendril. Stipules semisagittate, usually incised or dentate.

Flowers: Flowers in axillary racemes, solitary, or in axillary clusters of 2–3(4). Flowers papilionaceous; bracts minute, caducous, bracteoles absent. Calyx actinomorphic or zygomorphic, 5-lobed, the lobes subequal or the upper 2 partly connate. Corolla variously colored, standard with a broad claw, wing petals obliquely oblong, keel petals shorter than wings, obtuse. Stamens 10, Upper stamen distinct or adhering with others, the remaining 9 connate into a tube. Ovary superior; ovules 2 to numerous; style terete (cylindrical) or compressed, pubescent all around or apex with a tuft of hairs abaxially.

Fruit: Pods oblong to linear; laterally compressed; dehiscent; not septate. Seeds 2 to several; usually subglobose; ± compressed; with a more or less elongated hilum.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range: