Herb up to 25 cm. Stem glabrous, ribbed, 2-or 3-chotomously branched. Leaves mostly in pseudo-whorls of 3, broadly elliptic to ovate, 10-55 by 9-25 mm, acute, base attenuate, laxly short-hairy, ciliate, 0.5-1 cm petioled. Racemes terminal or in a fork, including the peduncle 3-7.5 cm; bracts and bracteoles early caducous. Flowers 1.5-2 mm long, white with rosa crest. Sepals blunt, the alae obovate, 5-nerved. Upper petals oblong, about as long as the keel; keel with 2 broad 2-tipped appendages. Filaments free for ¼-½, hairy along the upper suture. Ovary obcordate; style curved and widened in apical half, obliquely truncate apically. Capsule symmetric, obcordate, c. 2.5 mm long, apically notched, not mucronate, winged; wing cross-veined, distinctly widening apically. Seed ellipsoid, tuberculate, shortly hairy, at micropylar side with an obliquely lobed aril, at chalazal side with an appendage one third as long as the seed; this somewhat narrower than the seed, truncate, ending in an orbicular, hollow, membraneous lamella, which makes an angle of c. 45° with the seed.
In Malaya and Celebes noted from limestone (should also be from Sumba), in open terrain, below 300 m.
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