Annual or perennial herbs, spreading or climbing by means of tendrils. Leaves paripinnate, the rhachis terminating in a prehensile tendril or a bristle; leaflets in 1–3 pairs; stipules small to very large, foliaceous, semicordate, usually equalling or exceeding the leaflets. Flowers solitary or in few-flowered axillary racemes; bracts small, deciduous; bracteoles absent; calyx 5-partite; tube asymmetrical, slightly gibbous at the base; teeth subequal; corolla purple, pink or white, medium-sized to large; standard broadly ovate to suborbicular with a short broad claw; wings shorter than the standard, adhering to the keel; keel shorter than the wings, oblong-falcate, often with a wing on the outer upper surface. Fruit pod oblong, little compressed, dehiscent. Seeds globular, numerous, with a slender aril.
Worldwide: Three species in the Mediterranean and West Africa.
Zimbabwe: 1 cultivated taxon. |
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