Trees or shrubs, unarmed or with spinescent branches; branchlets, pedicels, and/or calyx glandular viscid in some species. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate, petioled; lateral leaflets opposite, subopposite, or alternate, entire, short petio-luled; stipels absent; stipules small, caducous. Inflorescence of short axillary racemes or fascicles; pedicels solitary at the nodes, jointed below the calyx, each 2-bracteolate. Flowers yellow; hypanthium campanulate, the 5 lobes unequal, the 2 uppermost lobes relatively broad, the 2 lateral lobes equal to these in length but narrower, the lowest lobe narrow, acute, longer than the others; petals yellow, unequal, the standard the longest, the keel petals the shortest, all petals short clawed; the standard reflexed with 2 basal callosites inside, the wing and the keel petals often auriculate; stamens diadelphous, the odd stamen free, the anthers uniform; ovary stipitate, the style glabrous, the stigma small, terminal, ovules many. Fruit distinctively inflated, stipitate, oblong, the pericarp splitting into 2 layers, a papery inflated exocarp and a firm endocarp, the legume thus with a bladder on each side; seeds oblong, compressed, attached near one end.
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