Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Scandent or weakly erect, foetid shrubs 2–6 m tall.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves compound. Alternate. Leaflets (2)3–6(7) airs, opposite, the distal ones larger, broadly to narrowly obovate or obovate–cuneate, (1.8–)2.2–5.5(–6.5) cm long, (0.7–1–2(–2.4) cm wide. Apex rounded, mucronulate or shallowly emarginate. Base obliquely cuneate. Leaflet upper surfaces green, glabrous or sparsely pubescent toward base or along midrib. Leaflet margins entire. Petiolate; petiolar nectaries always between the first and sometimes also second pairs of leaflets, 0.7–2.8 mm long. Stipules linear–lanceolate to linear–oblanceolate, 1.5–9 mm long, caducous.

Flowers: Flowers in racemes 3–30 cm long. Flowers caesalpinaceous. Pedicels 8–37 mm long, bracts subulate-lanceolate, 1–4 mm long, caducous as pedicels begin to elongate; bracteoles absent. Calyx lobes yellowish to reddish brown, outer ones ovate to elliptic–lanceolate, 3–10 mm long, the innermost obovate to elliptic–suborbicular, 7.15.5 mm long, margins membranous, lobes 5, imbricate. Corolla of 5 petals, golden yellow to orangish yellow, fading yellow, the standard broadly obovate–flabellate, the others ovate to obovate, the abaxial ones sometimes oblong–elliptic, the longest one 11–26 mm long. Staminodes linear–oblanceolate to rhombic–orbicular or inversely deltate, 1.2–4.5 mm long; filaments of 4 median Stamens 1.4–4 mm long, those of lateral abaxial Stamens dilated, 6.5–20 mm long, straight, shorter than to not more than twice as long as the anthers; anther of central abaxial stamen sterile, fertile anthers dehiscent by U–shaped slits, fertile anthers, basifixed, usually modified into sets of 4 median and abaxial anthers. Ovary superior.

Fruit: Pods pendulous; chartaceous; cylindrical or compressed–cylindrical; straight or slightly curved; often portions sterile and then variably distorted; 7–18 cm long; tardily or not dehiscent; the mesocarp and exocarp separating when fruit fully ribe; the cavity with membranous interseminal septa. Seeds in 1–2 rows; brown; smooth and glossy or dull; obliquely obovoid; perpendicular to capsule axis; embedded in copious or scanty pulp; 4.1–6.5 mm long; without an areole.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Cultivated and naturalized in dry; disturbed areas.

Elevation Range: 15–670 m.