Twining herbs, with tuberous roots. Stems sparsely hirsute with brown hairs. Stipules dorsifixed, sagittate, upper lobes 5-11 mm, basal 2 lobes 3-8 mm, striate and ciliate; petiole 3.5-16 cm; stipels lanceolate, 5-7 mm; terminal leaflet ovate, 9-15 × 6-10 cm, 3-lobed to entire, lateral ones obliquely broadly ovate, smaller, ± 2-lobed, base cuneate or rounded, apex shortly acuminate, pubescent on both surfaces. Racemes up to 30 cm, simple or once branched. Bracts ovate, 4-6 mm, glabrous or ciliate; bracteoles 2-3 mm, glabrous or sparsely hirsute. Flowers 3 at each node of rachis; pedicels slender, up to 7 mm, glabrous. Calyx hairy on both surfaces or glabrous outside; tube 3-5 mm; lobes 4, lanceolate, 4-7 mm, subequal, upper one broader. Corolla purple or pink; standard suborbicular, 14-17 mm, apex emarginate, base auriculate and with callosities, claw ca. 3.5 mm; wings obovate, ca. 16 mm, clawed and auriculate; keel oblique. Ovary shortly hirsute, subsessile. Legumes linear-oblong, 5.5-6.5(-9) × ca. 1 cm, very sparsely hirsute with yellowish hairs, suture thickened, densely hairy. Seeds 9-12, red-brown, ovate, flattened, ca. 4 × 2.5 mm. Fl. Sep, fr. Oct.
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A creeping bean herb that keeps growing from year to year. It has fleshy tuberous roots. The young branches are hairy. The leaves have 3 leaflets. The end one is diamond shaped and has 3 lobes. The side 2 leaflets are oblique. They are 8-15 cm long by 6-10 cm wide. The flowers are purple-red. They are 1.5 cm long. The pods are narrow and 6 cm long.
Forests; at elevations from 1,000-3,200 metres. Climbing over dwarf bushes or oak trees, on hill slopes, in forests, near streams, on schistaceous, sandy, and rocky soils.
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Forests; at elevations from 1,000-3,200 metres. Climbing over dwarf bushes or oak trees, on hill slopes, in forests, near streams, on schistaceous, sandy, and rocky soils.
It is a tropical plant. In China it grows in forests between 1,000-3,200 m above sea level. In Sichuan and Yunnan.
Can be grown by seedlings. Seeds needs soaking.
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