Eriosema ellipticifolium Schinz

Perennial herb (4)9-12(25) cm high with one to six stems from short stylopodium of carrot-like, usually constricted, underground rootstock. Stems erect or ascending, 3-10(23) cm long; terete or angular, often ribbed, glandular or eglandular, clothed with short white pubescent and long spreading pale yellow or white, hairs. Stipules free, 6-15 mm long, 2.0-3.5 mm wide; narrowly ovate to ovate, often falcate, striate, white or ferruginous hairy. Leaves trifoliolate, basal leaves unifoliolate; leaflets 7.0 cm long, 1.4-3.5 cm wide, laterals smaller, elliptic to narrowly elliptic or narrowly oblong, base truncate, mucronate, middle nerve slightly sunken above, prominent and subreticulate below, short appressed pubescent on both sides, denser on nerves, densely orange gland-dotted below, lightly above, terminal leaflet symmetrical, laterals asymmetrical with bases slightly oblique; young leaves glandular, long appressed tawny haired on veins with short curly dense pubescence between; Petiole 4-11 mm long; petiolules ca. 2 mm long; rachis 5-8 mm long. Racemes 1-10-flowered; peduncle (1.0)2.0-3.5(7.5) cm long, canaliculate, with long spreading tawny, or long white hairs interspersed with short white deflexed hairs; rachis 0.7-2.1 cm long; pedicels ca. 3 mm long. Flowers 6-10(13) mm long, 3-5 mm wide, reflexed, corolla barely exceeding calyx, yellow; bracts 6-8 mm long, 1.0-1.5 mm wide, lanceolate, shallow boat-shaped, 3-6-veined, thinly pilose, more than half length of flower. Calyx 6-9 mm long with long and short admixed pale yellow or white hairs, glandular outside, hairy inside at apex of lobes with smaller hairs scattered on either side of veins; tube 2.5 mm long, slightly longer between horn lobes; lobes unequal, lanceolate, 3-4 times longer than tube, horn lobes 7.5-8.0 mm long curving inwards, lateral lobes 7.0-8.0 mm long curving upwards; keel lobe longest, 8.0-9.2 mm long. Standard yellow (7.5)9-10(3.0) mm long, (4.5)6.0-7.0 mm wide, narrowly obovate, often narrowed towards base, white pubescent and glandular on back; claw 2.0-2.6 mm long; width between auricles 3.0-4.0 mm; appendages free of auricles, being upcurled flaps joined slightly in the middle, (1.5)4.0 mm from base of claw. Wings 7.5-0.1 mm long, 2.0-3.3 mm wide at maximum, longer than keel blades, eglandular, occasionally very glandular; claw 1.5-2.5 mm long, attenuate; auricle (1.2)1.5-1.6 mm high, straight. Keel blades 6.5-7.5(8.9) mm long, 3.0-4.0(4.6) mm wide at maximum, auricle 1.0-1.7(2.0) mm high, claw 1.7-3.0 mm long, attenuate, apex rostrate. Staminal sheath 5.7-7.0 mm long, 2.7-4.0 mm wide at maximum, free stamen 5.0-6.0 mm long, basal knee 1.0-1.3 mm long. Gynoecium 6.0-6.6 mm long; ovary 2.43.0 mm long, subsessile; clothed with long stiff hairs as far as point of style swelling or flexure; gynophore 0.1-0.5 mm; style unevenly thickened, widest at middle of thickening, curvature 2.0-2.2(2.7) mm high; stigma globose, inserted. Nectary 0.4-0.5 mm high, discoid, margin erose. Fruits broadly ovate, 1.4-1.6 cm long, 0.9-1.0 cm wide, clothed with appressed light yellow hairs, denser along sutures, with small stiff hairs between; seeds 0.5-0.6 cm long, 0.3 cm wide, black, or greenish yellow with small faint reddish blotches.

It is a subtropical plant.

The fruit are eaten as a vegetable.