Perennial climber ± 2 m. long or, more rarely, suberect and woody herb 0·3–0·9 m. tall.. Stems covered with yellowish-brown spreading pubescence.. Leaves pinnately 3(very rarely –5)-foliolate; leaflets elliptic, 1·4–8 cm. long, 0·7–3·9 cm. wide, rounded or emarginate and mucronulate at the apex, rounded or ± cuneate at the base, pubescent on both surfaces, but especially on the raised venation beneath, or sometimes velvety beneath; petiole 0·9–4·5 cm. long; rhachis 4–10 mm. long; petiolules 2 mm. long; stipules filiform, 3–4 mm. long.. Flowers in subsessile axillary (or rarely pseudo-terminal) clusters, 1·5–2·5 cm. long; peduncles 0–15 mm. long; pedicels 2·5–3 mm. long; bracts linear-lanceolate, 1·5 mm. long; bracteoles linear, 2 mm. long.. Calyx densely covered with spreading ferruginous hairs; tube 2–5 mm. long; lobes linear-triangular, 4–5 mm. long; upper pair joined at the base.. Standard white, greenish at the base (rarely ? coral-red), elliptic or rounded-oblong, 11 mm. long, 6·5 mm. wide, emarginate, silky outside.. Pod linear-oblong, 4–6·5 cm. long, 6–8 mm. wide, margined, adpressed pilose or glabrescent.. Seeds dark reddish-brown, oblong-ellipsoid, flattened, longest dimension 6·5 mm., shorter dimension 4·2 mm., 1·5 mm. thick; aril well developed.. Fig. 78, p. 527.
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