Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Climbing or trailing lianas.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves compound. Alternate. Leaflets elliptic, 10–15 cm long, 7–9 cm wide. Upper surfaces glossy; lower surfaces dull, appressed pubescent. Leaflet margins entire. Lateral veins conspicuous, equidistant. Petiolate. Stipules weakly peltate, subpersistent.

Flowers: Flowers subsessile, ca. 20 mm long, in pseudoracemes 20–50 cm long, upper ½ with upcurved, short, thick flowering stems ca. 5 mm long. Flowers papilionaceous. Calyx subpersistent, Calyx 5-lobed, the upper 2 teeth partly connate. Corolla purple, keel shorter than wings, reflexed, auriculate at base, keel petals incurved. Stamens 5 fertile anthers alternating with 5 reduced ones. Stamens 10, 9 of them connate into a tube, the upper stamen distinct at base, connate to the tube at middle; anthers medifixed. Ovary superior; style incurved, thickened, glabrous apically; stigma capitate, terminal.

Fruit: Pods 7–13 cm long; 5–7 cm wide; with 2 ridges along the upper suture; densely tomentose in younger stages; glabrous when ripe. Seeds 2–3; dark brown; lenticular; 18–20 mm in diameter; with an oblong hilum over ½; the circumference of the seed.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Dry to mesic coastal areas.

Elevation Range: 5–45 m.