Description:
Perennial climbing herbs. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate; stipules small, striate; stipels present. Inflorescences axillary; flowers solitary. Calyx 5-lobed, but upper lobes connate. Corolla large, blue or pale purple; standard glabrous, auriculate and with appendages at base. Stamens : vexillary stamen free, with a tooth-like appendage at base; filaments dilated at apex; anthers similar in size, but 5 basifixed and 5 subdorsifixed. Ovary linear, many-ovuled; tomentose; style slightly twisted, flattening into a wedge shape at apex, with a ring of hairs directly below terminal stigma. Pods linear, compressed, many-seeded. Seeds oblong, with a well-developed aril.
Distribution:
Species 3, one each in trop. Africa, India and Burma; sthn trop. Afr. 1: Nesphostylis holosericea (Welw. ex Baker) Verdc., Angola, Mozambique. N. junodii (Harms) Munyenyembe & Bisby is included under Dolichos .
Source:
SSTA
Synonym(s):
Sphenostylis E.Mey. in part; Torre: 275 (1966).
Classification:
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