Humularia P.A.Duvign.

Erect or prostrate subshrubs or less often small shrubs. Leaves pinnately 2–12-foliolate, the leaflets asymmetrical at the base, often with one part cuneiform and the other rounded or half-cordate, the main nerve eccentric or even marginal; stipules rounded, cordate or unequally auriculate at the base, often similar in size to the leaves, leafy or sometimes submembranous or subscarious, persistent or deciduous; stipels absent. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, in subcylindrical bracteate racemes, generally dense and scorpioid, less often lax and zigzag; bracts big, distichous, bilobed, densely imbricate, sometimes ± hiding the flowers and completely hiding the fruits, mostly membranous and coloured; bracteoles membranous, persistent, nervose. Calyx 2-lipped, the lips almost free, the upper ± bifid, the lower trifid. Corolla small or medium-sized, yellow, orange or reddish, often lined with red. Standard ± pandurate, narrowed into a claw; wings spathulate, united by their basal appendages, and with a series of small pockets; keel-petals obovate, very shortly joined near the apex, narrowed into a claw. Stamens arranged in 2 bundles of 5; anthers uniform. Ovary stipitate, 2-ovuled; style inflexed, glabrous; stigma terminal. Pods somewhat woody, flattened or eventually biconvex, 1–2-jointed, straight or one joint folded back on the other, often beaked by the persistent style-base. Seeds rounded-reniform, smooth.