Lianas, 2-10 m. Stems thick, many branched, thinly ridged, brown pubescent, glabrescent. Leaves (5 or)7-or 9-foliolate; rachis 10-20 cm, including petiole 2-5 cm; leaflet blades ovate-elliptic, oblong, linear, or narrowly lanceolate, (3-)5-6(-8) × (0.5-)1.5-4 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous or rarely sparsely puberulent, base rounded, tapering, or cuneate, apex obtuse, acuminate, or retuse. Panicles terminal or axillary near apex of branchlets, 10-20 cm, often pendulous, brown pubescent; flowering branchlets densely congested. Pedicel 3-5 mm. Flowers 1.3-1.7 mm. Calyx 3-4 × ca. 5 mm, glabrescent; teeth short, margin yellow ciliate. Corolla purple; standard ovate-oblong, glabrous, without basal calluses, base shortly clawed. Ovary glabrous, with numerous ovules. Legume blackened when dry, linear, ca. 15 × 1-1.5 cm, flat, thinly leathery; suture not thickened. Seeds 3-6 per legume, black, oblong, ca. 11 × 7 mm. Fl. Apr-Aug, fr. Jun-Nov.
Damp shady places. Thickets on slopes and in valleys, thickets by streams, at elevations from 100-1,200 metres.
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Damp shady places. Thickets on slopes and in valleys, thickets by streams, at elevations from 100-1,200 metres.
Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings. Seeds needs soaking.