FABACEAE  

Trees or shrubs, unarmed or armed with spine-tipped abbreviated lateral shoots. Leaves simply paripinnate or with lower jugae bipinnate; a few leaflet pairs usually obcordate; stipules sometimes spinescent, sometimes caducous. Inflorescence an axillary or terminal raceme. Flowers bisexual, irregular. Calyx eglandular or sometimes covered with many small, stalked glands, with short, sometimes campanulate tube; lobes 5, imbricate slightly unequal, one boat-shaped. Petals 5, obovate or oblong, slightly unequal, imbricate. Stamens 10, free, sometimes unequal; filaments pilose at base; anthers often elliptic. Ovary shortly stalked, 2- or 3-ovuled; style with small, terminal, sometimes hollow stigma. Pod compressed, lanceolate or oblong, flattened, membranous, splitting longitudinally almost along middle of each valve. Seeds transversely oblong. x= 12.

Perennial herbs, often glandular or lepidote, some with sweet roots. Leaves imparipinnate; leaflets many, rarely 3, entire or glandular-denticulate, without stipels; stipules membranous, caducous. Flowers blue, violet, white, or rarely yellowish, in axillary racemes or spikes; bracts narrow, membranous, caducous; bracteoles 0. Calyx weakly bilabiate. Petals: vexillum narrowly ovate or oblong, erect, shortly contracted at base; wings obliquely oblong, rather acute, free; keel longer than wings, acute or obtuse. Stamens diadelphous or monadelphous; vexillary stamen free or connate with the rest into a sheath split above. Ovary sessile, 2- or more-ovuled; style filiform or rather thick, incurved at apex; stigma terminal. Pod ovate, oblong or shortly linear, straight or arcuate, turgid or compressed, glandular, muricate, bristly or rarely smooth, indehiscent or tardily 2-valved. Seeds reniform or subglobose. x= 8 (aneuploids).

Herbs, prostrate or climbing, or shrubs, sometimes villous. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, rarely 1- or 5- or 7-foliolate; stipules small, often deciduous. Flowers fascicled or lower subsolitary, in axillary racemes; bracts small, setaceous. Calyx often hairy, with campanulate tube; 2 upper lobes usually fused, lowest often the longest. Petals: vexillum ovate or round, shortly clawed; wings narrow, eared, shortly clawed, adnate to keel; keel shortly clawed. Stamens diadelphous, or vexillary stamen connate with others at middle; anthers uniform. Ovary sessile or shortly stipitate, several- to many-ovuled, often villous; style filiform, with small stigma. Pod linear to linear-oblong, straight or incurved, compressed, or rarely convex on both sides, 2-valved. Seeds small; hilum small, central, elliptic, not arillate or with a vestigial rim-aril. x= 10 (aneuploids).

Tall trees with rounded crown and spreading branches; stipules spinescent, in pairs, straight or slightly curved, greenish white with reddish brown tips when young. Leaves with adaxial gland 0; rachis subglabrous or puberulous, with a single conspicuous gland at junction of each of 2-10 pairs of pinnae; leaflets grey-green, 6-23 pairs per pinna, linear or linear-oblong to slightly ovate-oblong, apex rounded or subacute or mucronate. Inflorescence spicate, usually singly in axil of a leaf. Flowers bisexual, yellowish white to pale cream-coloured, sessile or minutely pedicellate. Calyx campanulate, 4- or 5-lobed or -toothed, glabrous to pubescent. Corolla 4- or 5-lobed, often a delicate pink inside basally, lobes divided almost to base, glabrous to pubescent. Stamens many; filaments shortly united into a tube at base; anthers eglandular. Ovary shortly stipitate, pilose; style glabrous or subglabrous. Pod bright orange to reddish brown, falcate or curled into a circular coil or variously twisted, indehiscent, thick, glabrous or very rarely puberulous. Seeds light to dark brown, elliptic-lenticular.

Shrubs, or trees, or suffrutices with enlarged subterranean rootstocks; usually armed with prickles; variously hirsute. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, deciduous; leaflets with a pair of glands at base, stipulate. Flowers usually in terminal or sometimes axillary racemes, showy, appearing before or with leaves, bracteate; bracts usually hairy, deciduous. Calyx with narrow to campanulate tube, 2-lipped or subtruncate, sometimes with tube cleft nearly to base, sometimes woolly-villous to puberulous. Petals: vexillum conduplicate-falcate, shortly clawed, sometimes minutely velvety; wings frequently curved, shortly clawed, sometimes eared at base; keel sometimes eared. Stamens monadelphous or diadelphous, but vexillary stamen united to staminal tube for varying lengths; anthers uniform. Ovary stalked, linear, many-ovuled, usually densely tomentose; style terete, incurved, sometimes hispid below; stigma small, terminal. Pod usually falcate, moniliform, compressed or subterete, constricted, armed with prickles. Seeds red or brown, elliptic, smooth. x= 21 (aneuploids, high polyploidy).