Clitoria ternatea L.

Herbaceous vine, twining in understory; stems terete, 1-2 mm thick, weakly striate, strigose, densely strigose when juvenile, branched near the base, infre-quently branched above, internodes usually 5-15 cm long. Leaves odd pinnate; leaflets 5 or 7, membranous, ovate or elliptic, the apex retuse, mucronate, the base cuneate to broadly cuneate, 1.5-4.5 cm long, 1-3.5 cm wide, concolorous, the upper surface with scattered strigose hairs to glabrate, strigose to sparse strigose below, more conspicuous on major nerves, the veins weakly raised above, conspicuously raised below, primary veins 5-6 pairs, alternate, ascending minor nerves reticulate, marginal nerve strigose; petiole 1.5-3 cm, weakly striate sulcate, strigose; rachis 2-6 cm long, internodes 1-2.5 cm long, weakly striate, often adaxially canaliculate, strigose; stipules persistent, linear, 4(5) mm long, 0.5-0.8(1.0) mm wide; striate, pubescence uncinate, sparsely strigose; stipels persistent, acicular, inconspicuous, pubescence uncinate, sparsely strigose, 1-2 mm long; petiolules subquadrangular, pubescence uncinate, strigose, 2(3) mm long. Inflorescence reduced to a solitary, axillary, chasmogamous flower; pedun-cle (4)7-12 mm, glabrous, the apex with 2 pulvini; bracts 2, ovate, acuminate, striate, concave and appressed to the pedicel or spreading ascending, the pubes-cence uncinate, ciliate, 2-3 mm long, 1 mm wide; pedicel strigose and uncinate, often twisting or bending at the swollen base, 3-6 mm long; bracteoles conspic-uous, membranous, broadly ovate to nearly orbicular, appressed to the calyx, pubescence uncinate, sparsely strigose 6-10 mm long, 5-8 mm wide. Flowers showy, blue to violaceous; calyx membranous, conspicuously nerved, glabrate with uncinate hairs and rarely few scattered strigose hairs, the tube 9-14 mm long, 7-9 mm wide at the throat, the lobes 8-12 mm long, 3 mm wide at base, oblong, apically rounded, the excurrent nerve 1-2 mm long, ciliate, with uncinate hairs on nerves; standard 3.5-5.5 cm long, 2.5-3 cm wide, emarginate, the edges drying purple with strigose and uncinate hairs outside, denser towards the margin, the wings colored as the standard, the blade ca. 26 mm long, ca. 12 mm wide, extending beyong the keel 8-10 mm, the claw ca. 8 mm long, the keel falcate, ca. 9 mm long, ca. 6 mm wide, the claw ca. 15-17 mm; staminal column 17-19 mm, nearly straight below, weakly curved for last 3-4 mm, the free filaments 3-4 mm long, the vexillary filament curved, the anthers 1 mm long, 0.6-0.8 mm wide; gynophore ca. 1 mm long, the ovary 11-12 mm long, 1.5 mm wide with dense appressed ascending white hairs, the style ca. 15 mm, basally pubescent, becom-ing bearded towards the apex, densely bearded below the stigma. Fruit subses-sile, basally enclosed at the base within the calyx, splitting the calyx tube, light brown becoming tan, slightly thickened along both sutures, the pubescence un-cinate and strigose, becoming sparse with age; valves 10-11 cm long, 9-11 cm wide, nearly straight; seeds rectangular subreniform, smooth, glabrous, 5-6 mm long, 4 mm wide, 1.5-2 mm thick, 10 per pod.

It is a tropical plant. It will grow on most soils. It needs a sheltered sunny position. It is drought and frost tender. Mostly they grow on the edge of forests. It grows where the minimum temperature is 16°C. In Nepal it grows to about 250 m altitude in hedges and thickets. It can grow in arid places. In XTBG Yunnan. It suits hardiness zones 10-12.

CAUTION: The seeds are poisonous. The leaves are cooked and eaten. The juice is also used to colour food green. The flowers are cooked with rice to colour it blue. The dried flowers are steeped in boiling water and the coloured water used to tint rice cakes and sweets. The flowers are also eaten in salads. The young pods are cooked and eaten. The seeds are used in soup.

Plants can be grown from seed or cuttings. For seed the temperature should be at least 19-24°C. Seeds can be slow to germinate. This can be improved by filing, or soaking in hot water to break the hard seed coat. It is grown as an annual plant in temperate zones.