FABACEAE  

Erect or prostrate herbs, mainly perennial. Leaves digitately 2-4-foliolate; leaflets often pellucid-dotted; stipules subfoliaceous. Flowers yellow or orange-yellow, solitary or in interrupted spikes; spikes pedunculate, axillary or terminal; bracts enclosing flowers. Calyx membranous, 2 upper lobes connate, 2 lateral small, lowest subequal to upper lip. Petals: vexillum clawed; wings clawed; keel incurved, subrostrate, clawed. Stamens monadelphous, united into a column below, which at maturity is circumscissile and upper part is shed with petals, lower tubular part remaining to protect ovary; anthers unequal, 5 larger subbasifixed, 5 smaller versatile. Ovary sessile; several- to many-ovuled; style filiform, with small, terminal stigma. Pod sessile, compressed, with upper suture nearly straight, lower deeply sinuate, 2-15-jointed, breaking into smooth or spiny, indehiscent segments. Seeds ovoid, mostly black or dark brown, without appendages. x= 10, 11.

Woody shrubs or shrublets. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, simple, narrowly elliptic to almost circular, mostly flat, sometimes with recurved margins; petiole very short; stipules inconspicuous, often lacking. Inflorescence axillary, 2-flowered, pedunculate and with the two flowers opposite, aggregated into synflorescences of up to 16 flowers; bracts linear to oblanceolate; bracteoles minute, often lacking. Calyx usually narrowed to the base; upper 2 lobes fused higher up than lower 3 lobes; carinal lobe sometimes longer than the upper 4. Corolla yellow, longer than calyx, glabrous; vexillum suborbicular to elliptic; wings oblong, longer than keel, tips imbricate; keel widely obovate, with distinct pockets, apex obtuse. Stamens diadelphous, vexillary filament free; anthers alternately dorsifixed and subbasifixed. Ovary 4- or more-ovuled; style slender, slightly upcurved, glabrous. Pod somewhat compressed, usually linear, sometimes obliquely oblong, coriaceous, densely sericeous to tomentose. Seeds 4 to many, oblong-reniform.

Shrublets with many rigid, somewhat zigzag branches, with recurved, spinescent stipules. Leaves few, small, bipinnate, with pinnae 1-2-jugate; leaflets. small, few-jugate. Flowers bisexual, sessile, in axillary, shortly pedunculate heads. Calyx campanulate, with 5 lobes longer than tube. Petals 5, valvate, linear, free almost to base. Stamens 10, free, 5 opposite petals short, 5 alternating with petals longer but scarcely exceeding petals; anthers with minute, terminal, deciduous gland apically. Ovary subsessile, 1(2)-ovuled, villous; style filiform, somewhat thickened above, with truncate stigma. Pod broadly falcate-ovate or semiorbicular, plano-compressed, 1-seeded, with lower suture arched and winged. Seed compressed-ovoid, smooth.

Shrubs, rigid, sometimes spinescent. Leaves petiolate, digitately 3-foliolate; stipules small or 0. Flowers few to many in terminal, often unilateral racemes; bracteoles usually very small. Calyx with campanulate tube, somewhat 2-lipped; lobes shorter than tube. Petals: vexillum standing apart, ovate to obovate, reflexed, with linear or linear-spatulate claw; wings usually shorter than vexillum and keel, broadest near base, clawed; keel incurved, longer than vexillum, long-clawed. Stamens monadelphous; staminal tube split to base; anthers unequal. Ovary stalked, elliptic, few-ovuled, glabrous; stigma minutely capitate. Pod stipitate, indehiscent, oblong, oblong-elliptic or orbicular in lateral view, winged on upper suture, sharp and thin along the lower; valves sometimes ridged. Seeds 1-3, reniform, on filiform funicles. x= 9.

Annual or perennial herbs, climbing or prostrate, rarely short and erect. Leaves (1)3-foliolate, stipulate and stipellate; stipules varying from ovate to lanceolate or almost linear to filiform, base varying from spurred below point of attachment to cordate and median attachment with free lateral auricles. Flowers shading from white flushed with mauve to cream flushed with green or yellow; or shading from blue, lilac, mauve, purple to magenta, racemose, 1 or 2 together or fasciculate at top of axillary peduncles; bracts small, caducous. Calyx with campanulate tube; 2 upper lobes or teeth separate or connate. Petals: vexillum reflexed, from reniform to oblate, with basal, inflexed appendages and channelled claw; wings falcate-obovate, eared, clawed; keel incurved, sometimes into a somewhat spiral beak, clawed. Stamens diadelphous or monadelphous; filaments often dilated above; anthers uniform. Ovary sometimes with basal disc, sessile, with several to many ovules; style often thickened above, bearded along inner margin, with oblique or introrsely lateral stigma. Pod subterete, straight or slightly incurved, 2-valved, dehiscing spirally (in wild species). Seeds reniform or subquadrate with lateral hilum. x= 10, 11 (9, 12, 17) ( polyploidy).