Herbs or subshrubs, erect, prostrate or climbing. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, rarely 1-foliolate; stipules persistent, striate; stipels present. Inflorescences axillary, falsely racemose, the flowers in fascicles along the rhachis which is swollen at the insertion of the pedicels; bracts and bracteoles present, deciduous or ± persistent. Flowers usually fairly small, yellow, white, scarlet or purple; calyx 5-lobed, 2-lipped; upper lip emarginate, bifid; lower lip 3-lobed; standard rounded, auriculate, often considerably reflexed; keel often narrow, elongated, the apex beaked and forming a spiral of 1–5 complete turns. Ovary oblong to linear, 2–many-ovuled. Fruit a pod, linear or oblong, sometimes falcate, compressed or subcylindric, sometimes beaked, filled between the seeds. Seeds 3–many, oblong or reniform; hilum oblong. Zimbabwe: 1 cultivated taxon. Insects associated with this genus: |
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