Climbing herb 1-4.5(6) m long, usually annual or a short-lived perennial but also stated to climb to the tops of tall trees. Stems densely hairy at first, later glabrous. Leaflets rather thin, 4.8-19 x 3.4-16.8 cm, obovate, elliptic, rhombic or ovate, the laterals very oblique, acute or acuminate or rarely rounded at the apex, rounded at the base, sparsely to densely appressed grey or silvery hairy on both surfaces, not blackening on drying; petiole 2-40 cm long; rhachis 1-5 cm long; petiolules 3-6 mm long. Inflorescences silvery pubescent; rhachis 2-29 cm long; peduncle 2-18 cm long; flowers 2-3 per node, on pedicels 1.5-6 mm long; bracts 10-15 x 6 mm; bracteoles 10 x 2 mm, very deciduous. Calyx appressed silvery pubescent; tube 5-7 mm long; lobes 3-9 mm long, the lower linear-lanceolate to triangular, the upper pair joined to form a triangular lip. Standard blackish-purple to pale lilac or white, 1.7-2.2 x 1.4-1.5 cm, ovate, investing wings and not becoming erect; wings pale lilac to purple, 3-3.5 cm long; keel white, tinged mauve, 3.2-3.7 cm long, apical beak recurved and horny; staminal tube white. Pods 4-9 x 1-1.5 cm (sometimes 2 cm in cultivated forms), oblong, often S-shaped, densely covered with brown or reddish-orange irritant bristly hairs which sometimes appear black in the mass, longitudinally ribbed under the hairs; in some cultivated forms the pods are glabrescent or velvety hairy but lack the bristles. Seeds pinkish-brown speckled black or almost entirely black (or white to black in cultivars), 10-19 x 7.5-13 x 4-6.5 mm, oblong-ellipsoid, compressed; hilum c. 4 mm long, oblong; rim aril cream, somewhat wrinkled and with a scale-like extension.
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Stems with fine and coarse hairs, later glabrous. Terminal leaflet with length:width ratio 1.5-1.75:1; lateral leaflets not markedly larger, to 19 cm. Inflorescence with dense hairs and often sparse bristles. Calyx with soft hairs and often irritant bristles. Legume linear-oblong, not or slightly swollen around seeds and slightly S-shaped, to ca. 1 cm wide, densely covered with orange or brown irritant caducous bristles. Seeds 3-6, usually light yellow-brown, sometimes brown to black. Fl. Sep-Jan, fr. Oct-Apr.
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