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Perennial climbing or trailing herb 0.8-2.4 m long, often rooting at the nodes. Stems pubescent with short spreading hairs. Leaflets 3, elliptic or lanceolate, 1.8-8 cm long, 0.6-4.5 cm wide, obtuse or rarely subacute at the apex, rounded or somewhat narrowed at the base, finely adpressed pubescent on both surfaces, the margins often with a characteristic short close white pubescence, lower surface often purplish due to dense resin dots, penni-nerved but rather prominently 3-nerved from the base; petiole 1.7-20 cm long; rhachis 1-10 mm long; petiolules 0.5-4 mm long; stipules ovate-lanceolate, 3-7 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, pubescent, veined; stipels longer than in other related species, 4-8 mm long. Flowers 1-4 in axillary fascicles or in longer false inflorescences which are really slender leafless branches with several axillary fascicles; peduncle really very short but appearing to be 1.5-5 cm long; pedicels 2-4 mm long; bracts and bracteoles persistent, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 1.5-3 mm long. Normal flowers: calyx pubescent; tube 2-3 mm long; lobes triangular, 1.5-3(-6) mm long, the upper pair joined for two-thirds to almost their entire length. Standard cream or pale yellow, flushed mauve inside near the base, oblong-elliptic to almost round, 1-1.7 cm long, 1.2-1.4 cm wide, emarginate; wings and keel sometimes slightly twisted. Cleistogamous flowers: calyx ± 2.7 mm long; standard rounded-ovate, 6.5 mm long, 6 mm wide. Pods oblong, 2-3.5 cm long, 7 mm wide, glabrous. Single-seeded geocarpic fruits almost round, 1-1.2 cm long, 8 mm wide, compressed, beaked, wrinkled. Seeds yellowish or pinkish-brown, mottled with black and yellow-brown, or all blackish, elliptic or oblong-reniform, longest dimension 4.5-7 mm., shorter dimension 3-5 mm., 3.5 mm thick; aril developed, white.
A herb. It keeps growing from year to year. It can be climbing. It can be 2.4 m long. It often forms roots at the nodes. The stems have short spreading hairs. The leaves have 3 narrowly oval leaflets. These are 2-8 cm long by 1-5 cm wide. The pods are round and have one seed. They are 2-3.5 cm long by 7 mm wide. The seed is 1-1.2 cm long by 8 mm wide.
