Description:
Herbs or subshrubs, prostrate or climbing, rarely erect. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate; stipules appendaged below point of insertion; stipels present. Inflorescence an axillary pseudoraceme, subumbel or umbel; bracts and bracteoles present. Calyx 5-lobed, upper pair of lobes fused for all or part of their length; lower lobes various. Corolla mostly blue or mauve, rarely yellow; standard auriculate, appendaged. Stamens 10, 9 with filaments fused, 1 free to base or connate in middle. Ovary stipitate; ovules 3-many; style thickened above ovary, bent, flattened towards apex, bearded longitudinally or with a ring of hairs below stigma; stigma terminal or subterminal, penicillate or not. Pod narrowly cylindrical, 4-winged, septate, dehiscent. Seeds ovoid, oblong or square, brown to black or deep purple, with or without an aril.
Distribution:
Species 10, Old World; sthn trop. Afr. 3 indigenous, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique.
Source:
SSTA
Classification:
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