Leptoderris Dunn

Woody climbers, less commonly erect to scandent shrubs or trees with slender liane-like branches. Leaves imparipinnate, rarely (and not in East Africa) pinnately 3-foliolate; stipules present, usually caducous; stipels usually present, sometimes lacking; leaflets opposite. Flowers fairly small, crowded on very short ultimate branches of the mostly large terminal and axillary panicles (the terminal panicles at least usually well branched); bracts subtending the panicle-branches mostly similar to stipules; flower-bracts small; pedicels short with small mostly caducous bracteoles at the top. Calyx narrowly campanulate, small, shortly 5-toothed with the 2 upper teeth united practically to the tips, hairy on both surfaces. Corolla usually white, cream or pale yellowish, often marked red, pink or violet; petals narrow, subequal in length or the wings a little shorter, often auriculate at base of blade, glabrous to sparsely hairy or ciliolate at the tips; standard narrowly oblong or oblanceolate, with incurved margins, with or without thickenings at base of blade; wings adhering to keel-petals and often with a well-formed lateral fold or pocket; keel-petals oblong-elliptic, a little more curved and lightly coherent towards the tips on the lower side. Stamens united into a tube generally closed above but with openings at the base either side of the vexillary stamen (the latter may be free in young bud and is often adnate to the claw of the standard); anthers dorsifixed. Ovary shortly stipitate, few-ovulate; style curved, tapered to a very small terminal stigma, glabrous or with scattered hairs like those of the ovary on the lower part. Fruits flattened, indehiscent, elliptic to linear-oblong, with or more rarely without a relatively narrow wing along the upper edge, papery, usually venose, 1–few-seeded. Seeds reniform, usually finely wrinkled, with a small hilum; rim-aril detaching with the rather persistent funicle.