Annual or perennial herbs, erect or straggling, climbing by means of tendrils. Stems angular or ± winged. Leaves paripinnate, rarely imparipinnate; rhachis terminating in a tendril or a bristle, rarely reduced to a tendril; petiole and rhachis sometimes dilated and leaf-like; leaflets usually few, entire; stipules foliaceous, often semi-sagittate, persistent. Flowers solitary or in axillary racemes; bracts usually minute, early caducous; bracteoles absent. Calyx 5-lobed, sometimes asymmetrical with the upper 2 lobes shorter; corolla small to medium-sized, red, blue or yellow; standard oblong-obovate to transversely elliptic with a short broad claw; wings oblong to falcate-obovate, adherent to the keel or free; keel shorter than the wings, incurved, obtuse. Ovary subsessile or stipitate, few–many-flowered. Fruit pods linear-oblong, terete or ± laterally compressed, dehiscent. Seeds globose or ellipsoid, sometimes compressed, smooth or rugulose, with a slender aril.
Worldwide: 130 species in northern temperate regions and South America, a few species in Africa.
Mozambique: 0 cultivated taxa. |
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