Clitoria L.

Trees, shrubs, lianas, herbaceous vines or suffruticose herbs, erect or climb-ing; pubescence of uncinate (hooked) hairs common. Leaves trifoliate, less com-monly 5-or 7-foliolate, petiolate, terminal leaflet usually larger; leaflets entire, the midrib and nerves impressed or weakly raised above, prominently raised below, ascending, usually arcuate towards the margin, joining the vein above, the minor veins conspicuously reticulate; stipules and stipels usually persistent, sometimes caducous, striate, usually erect, appressed. Inflorescences axillary or cauliflorous, racemose; flowers chasmogamous or sometimes cleistogamous (poorly observed in Panamanian material); pedicels usually paired; bracts 2-6, striate, pubescent adaxially, the inner pair caducous, usually smallest, between the pedicels, the middle pair often persistent, concave, opposite and appressed to the pedicel, sometimes spreading or reflexed in age, the outer pair caducous to semipersistent, between the pedicels; peduncles axillary, 1-several, short, often fascicled, cauliflorous; bracteoles 2, striate, persistent, frequently present in fruit, usually pubescent adaxially. Chasmogamous flowers resupinate, showy, bi-sexual, 5-merous, blue, violet, pink, or white, sometimes white fading yellow; calyx funnelform, persistent in fruit, conspicuously nerved, the apex 5-lobed, the upper 2 lobes subconnate, the lowermost lobe narrower, often longest; standard complicate, large and flag-like, erect, emarginate, short clawed, darker towards the edges and on the veins, the wings falcate oblong, spatulate, extending beyond the keel, shorter than standard, adherent in the middle to keel, long clawed, the keel petals incurved, acute, the claw elongate; stamens 10, diadelphous, vexillary stamen free or connate at base, the staminal column incurved, glabrous, often persistent in fruit, the free filaments filiform, the anthers basifixed, uniform; ovary stipitate, linear, compressed, many ovuled, densely pubescent, the style elongate, geniculate near the tip, usually twisting, flattened, bearded lengthwise, the stigma often pubescent around the base. Fruit stipitate, linear, compressed, slightly thickened on the upper or both sutures, costate or not, the valves flat or convex, often bearing uncinate (hooked) hairs, usually beaked by the persistent style or style base, splitting spirally, twisting; seeds subglobose or subreniform, glabrous, smooth or with a sticky coat. Cleistogamous flowers uncommon, inconspicuous