Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Erect shrubs or small trees; branches often ribbed, usually with short lateral shoots.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves compound (palmately trifoliate, unifoliate, or a mix of both types) or reduced to scales. Alternate, deciduous. Petiolate. Stipules present, distinct, adnate to leaf base, or absent.

Flowers: Flowers in clusters of 1–3 in terminal or axillary pseudoracemes or heads. Flowers papilionaceous; bracteoles present. Calyx bilabiate, 5-lobed, the upper lip 2-toothed, the lower one 3-toothed, the teeth usually shorter than the tube. Corolla white, yellow, or purple. Stamens 10, connate; anthers alternately longer (basifixed) and shorter (versatile). Ovary superior, numerous; style usually curved near middle.

Fruit: Pods dehiscent; flat; usually oblong or linear–oblong; often slightly curved. Seeds numerous; oblong–ovoid or obliquely ellipsoid; the hilum on the shortest side; often with a collar-like aril.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range: