Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves compound. Alternate. Leaves appearing trifoliate, but actually pinnately 5–foliate with a basally placed pair of leaflets. Petiolate. Stipules minute, membranous or reduced to dark glands. (Lower leaflets may be mistaken for stipules).

Flowers: Flowers usually few to several in axillary umbels, bracts 1–3–foliate. Flowers papilionaceous; bracteoles absent, rarely present and minute. Calyx actinomorphic to bilabiate, usually campanulate to funnelform, 5-toothed, the teeth subequal or the lowest one longest. Corolla variously colored, standard obovate, wing petals oblong, auriculate, keel petals as long as wings, curved, apex pointed or beaked. Stamens 10; upper stamen distinct, the other 9 connate into a tube, alternately with longer filaments that are widened at apex and shorter filaments that are ± widened. Ovary superior, sessile or short–stipitate; ovules numerous; style bent abruptly upward at base.

Fruit: Pods straight; basically linear–cylindrical; dehiscent with twisted valves; usually septate between the seeds. Seeds numerous; small; subglobose to lenticular.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range: