Cicer L.

Erect or prostrate, perennial or annual, usually viscid herbs or subshrubs. Leaves 3-foliolate or more usually pinnate, the terminal leaflet sometimes replaced by a tendril or spine; leaflets very conspicuously dentate; stipules often conspicuous, leafy, oblique, toothed or deeply divided; stipels absent. Inflorescences axillary, few-flowered or flowers solitary; bracts small; bracteoles absent. Calyx 5-lobed, the tube oblique or gibbous; lobes sub-equal or the upper pair shorter, connivent. Corolla small, white, blue or purplish; standard ovate or rounded, narrowed into a broad claw, without appendages. Vexillary stamen free; anthers uniform. Ovary 2–few-ovuled; style filiform, incurved, not bearded; stigma terminal. Pods sessile, oblong-ellipsoid, inflated. Seeds subglobose or irregularly obovoid; hilum small.