Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Spreading, foetid shrubs 1–5 m tall.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves compound. Alternate. Leaflets (8)9–16(–18) pairs, opposite. Leaflets elliptic–oblong. Leaflets slightly smaller at either end of the rachis, 2–6.5 cm long, 0.8–2.5 cm wide. Apex obtuse to subacute, aristate–mucronate. Base obliquely rounded to subcordate. Surfaces pubescent or upper surface sometimes glabrous. Leaflet margins entire. Petiolate; petiolar nectaries absent. Stipules reflexed, ovate–cordate, 6–17 mm long, tardily deciduous.

Flowers: Flowers in racemes 10–40 cm long. Flowers caesalpinaceous; pedicels 4–10 mm long, bracts petaloid, brownish green to blackish green, (8–)10–17 mm long, bracteoles absent. Calyx lobes oblong–obovate, 9–14 mm long, lobes 5, imbricate. Corolla of 5 petals, bright yellow, subequal, oblong–obovate to obovate, 17–27 mm long. Filaments of 4 median Stamens 2.5–3.3 mm long, those of 2 fertile Stamens 3–4 mm long, that of abaxial stamen 4–5 mm long, straight, shorter than to not more than twice as long as the anthers; anthers of 4 median Stamens and central one sterile, fertile anthers, basifixed, usually modified into sets of 4 median and abaxial anthers. Ovary superior.

Fruit: Pods spreading or ascending; chartaceous at maturity; linear–oblong; strongly compressed; 7–12 cm long; 1.5–2.5 cm wide; dehiscent; the cavity with narrow membranous interseminal septa. Seeds pale tan overlain with brownish green; compressed; 6–8 mm long; smooth or obscurely pitted; crackled with age; the areole 3–4 mm long.

Ploidy: 2n = 28

Habitat:

Elevation Range: Low elevations.