Flora of North America species comparison

trailing or twining, sometimes rooting at nodes, hirsute.

spreading, climbing, twining, or erect, striate, glabrous or pubescent, hairs not uncinate.

stipules triangular, 3–5 mm, base slightly auriculate-cordate;

petiole 1.5–8 cm;

rachis 0.4–1 cm;

stipels linear, 1.5–2.5 mm;

leaflet blades ovate- or linear-lanceolate, 3–8 × 0.5–5 cm, base obtuse or rounded, apex acute or acuminate.

alternate, odd-pinnate;

stipules present, persistent, slightly auriculate, distinctly peltate, or conspicuously retrorse; petiolate;

leaflets 3, stipels present, blades 1.5–16 cm, membranous or firm, margins usually entire or shallowly deeply incised, surfaces glabrous or pubescent.

often flexuous, floral nodes 10–15, mostly clustered at apex;

bracts deciduous, ovate-lanceolate, 1–1.5 mm.

2–30-flowered, axillary, pseudoracemes, with swollen floral nodes, glandular, 2 flowers per node, clustered distally;

bracts present, primary nodal bracts deciduous, entire;

bracteoles minute or deciduous, shorter or longer than calyx.

to 30 cm.

ascending, curved distally, 3–5 mm;

bracteoles tardily deciduous, triangular, 1.5–2.5 mm.

erect, arcuate to reflexed near pod.

calyx tube 4.5–6 mm, apex acute to acuminate, adaxial lobe broader, 2.5–3.5 mm;

corolla yellow, 15–20 mm;

banner suborbiculate, 1.5–2 × 1.5–2 mm, with 2 basal auricles;

wings obliquely obovate, 15 × 1 mm;

keel broadly curved, vertically incurved, 15 × 5–6 mm;

style curved, extending beyond stigma into tip.

papilionaceous;

calyx campanulate, 2–6 mm, lobes 4, shorter to longer than tube, adaxial lobes usually ± connate;

corolla greenish yellow to golden yellow, purple, or white, sometimes with reddish veins, 7–30 mm;

banner symmetric or asymmetric, glabrous, often with appendages on central, inner face, slightly to strongly thickened at point where reflexed, apex emarginate;

wings subequal to banner and keel;

keel apically expanded, sometimes appendaged;

stamens 10, diadelphous, vexillary filament thickened at base;

pollen triporate;

anthers dorsifixed;

ovary with nectary disc at base, linear;

style incurved, with distal brush, usually extended beyond stigma into conic or slender tip;

stigma lateral.

legumes, ascending, spreading, or pendulous, stipitate, usually linear to falcate, valves membranous or paper, dehiscent, resupinate by twisting of pedicel, glabrous.

pendulous, brown-black in age, linear, torulose, 4–7 × 0.5–0.8 cm, strigose to pilose.

5–12, brownish black, reniform, 4–6 × 3–4 mm;

hilum white, not raised.

1–25, globular to oblong, cylindric, or reniform;

hilum concave or protruding; mostly with white rim aril;

seedlings hypogeal or epigeal.

perennial.

, annual or perennial, herbaceous [woody], 1–3 m;

roots tuberous or fibrous.

= 10, 11.