Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Climbing or prostrate herbs from a woody rootstock.

Stems: Stems 0.3 to several m long, glabrous or velvety pubescent.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves compound. Alternate. Leaflets rhombic, ovate, or suborbicular, the lateral ones oblique, 0.9–6 cm long, 0.8–5 cm wide. Apex rounded to acute. Lower surfaces glabrate to velvety pubescent and densely glandular–dotted. Leaflet margins entire. Petioles 1–4 cm long. Stipules linear–lanceolate, ca. 3.5 mm long.

Flowers: Flowers in lax, axillary pseudoracemes 2–15 cm long, in clusters. Flowers papilionaceous; bracteoles absent. Calyx 5-lobed, the upper 2 lobes connate into a bifid lip. Corolla brownish outside, yellow within, standard often tinged reddish, 5–10 mm long, with small auricles. Stamens 10; upper stamen distinct, the other 9 connate into a tube. Ovary superior; styles pilose at base, glabrous.

Fruit: Pods oblong–falcate; flattened and slightly constricted between the widely spaced seeds; 0.6–3.5 cm long; 0.3–0.5 cm wide. Seeds (1)2; gray to black; reniform; slightly laterally flattened; 2.5–3 mm long; 2–2.5 mm wide; compressed.

Ploidy: 2n = 22

Habitat: Disturbed areas.

Elevation Range: Low elevations.