Erect annual softly woody herb, 1–3 m. tall, the lateral branches not again branched; stems glabrous.. Stipules linear-lanceolate, up to 8 mm. long, ± erect, sparsely pilose, caducous; leaf-rhachis usually minutely aculeate, sparsely pilose at its base and at the bases of the leaflets; leaflets in 6–30 pairs, up to 20 mm. long and 4 mm. wide, glabrous or sparsely pilose at the margins when young.. Racemes 5–12-flowered, glabrous or very sparsely pilose when young; rhachis 5–14 cm. long, including a 2–8 cm. long peduncle which is often minutely aculeate; pedicels up to 12 mm. long.. Calyx glabrous, except for the margin; receptacle 1.5 mm., tube 3.5 mm., teeth slightly acuminate, 1 mm. long.. Blade of standard golden within, pale yellow and purple-flecked outside, widest above the middle, 15–18 mm. long, 12–14 mm. wide; basal appendages with narrowly triangular very slender free tips, 1.5–2 mm. long; claw 3.5–4.5 mm. long; blade of wing golden yellow, 14–18 mm. long, 4 mm. wide, hooked at the base; claw 4–4.5 mm.; blade of keel pale yellow, 9.5–12 mm. long, 3.5 mm. wide at the base and 5 mm. near the apex; basal tooth ± 1 mm. long, forming an angle of 0–20° with the 7.5–8.5 mm. long claw.. Filament-sheath (12–)13–16(–18) mm., free parts 3–5 mm., anthers 0.9 mm. long.. Ovary glabrous, tetragonous, 30–50-ovulate; style glabrous, 4 mm. long.. Pod usually slightly curved, dark-spotted between the seeds, hardly torulose when mature, 10–18 cm. long, 2.5–3 mm. wide, ± 1.9 mm. thick at the sutures and no more at the centre, thus oblong in cross-section, slightly grooved down the middle; septa 5–5.5 mm. apart.. Seeds green, densely and minutely purple-spotted, 3–3.5 × 1.5–2 × ± 1.6 mm.; hilum 0.3 mm. long.. Fig. 51/1–10, p. 346.
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