Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Climbing herbs.

Stems:

Roots: Roots tuberous.

Leaves: Leaves compound (pinnately trifoliolate). Alternate. Petiolate. Stipules lanceolate. Leaflets stipellate.

Flowers: Flowers in clusters of 2–4(5) on a short, warty, lateral axis, these in long pseudoracemes, bracts and bracteoles small, setaceous, caducous. Flowers papilionaceous. Calyx lobes 5, the upper 2 lobes connate into a larger bifid lobe. Corolla variously colored, standard obovate, with a transverse ridge inside at base, with inflexed auricles, wing petals retrorsely appendaged, keel petals incurved, obtuse. Stamens 10; upper stamen distinct, the other 9 connate into a tube. Ovary superior; ovules numerous; style 1, apical, dorsoventrally flattened, broadened toward apex, with a row of antrorse hairs on the upper (adaxial) side extending up from the ovary; stigma subglobose, lateral.

Fruit: Pods dehiscent; linear–oblong; compressed; thickened around the seeds; with transverse impressions between each seed. Seeds 4–12; ovoid to compressed orbicular; hilum small.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range: