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Perennial herbs or rarely subshrubs, 0.1-1.5 m tall; stems erect, ascending or sprawling procumbent, diffusely branched, suffruticose, terete, finely striate, un-armed. Leaves alternate, pinnately trifoliolate, the rachis below terminal leaflet 1-4 mm long; leaflets elliptic to lanceolate, 5-30(-40) mm long, 2-15 mm wide, apices obtuse to acute, occasionally mucronate, basally attenuate, the costas prominent; petioles 1.5-9.0 mm long; stipules amplexicaul, bidentate, pubescent, adnate with the petiole base, 3-11 nerved; exstipellate. Inflorescence spicate, terminal or axillary, 1-several flowered, each flower surrounded by a series of bracts and bracteoles, the outermost bracts similar to stipules and giving rise to 1-3 reduced leaflets, similar to cauline leaflets except for size, the bracts enclosing a smaller outer bracteole, usually 3 nerved, ciliate along the margin, within this a densely ciliate axis rudiment sometimes present; within this 1 or 2 inner brac-teoles, deeply cleft, the apices usually long ciliate. Flowers 5-merous, the calyx 4-15 mm long, tubular, 5 lobed, unequal; corolla papilionaceous, yellow or yellow orange and purple striate; stamens 10, monadelphous, the filaments coalescent into a tube, splitting on vexillar side after anthesis; 5 versatile anthers alternating with 5 subbasifixed ones; ovary subsessile, the 2(3) ovules campylotropous, the placentation marginal, the style long, filiform, the stigma minute, terminal. Fruit a loment, biarticulate, distally fertile, proximally abortive or fertile, reticulate or muricate, beaked; seeds ovate or lenticular, compressed, light brown to black, lustrous, strophiolate, Chromosomes: n = 10.
Shrublets or perennial herbs. Stems erect or spreading, with sparse glandular trichomes. Stipules sheathlike, adnate to petiole, not spurred, persistent. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate; leaflets subsessile. Inflorescences terminal or axillary spikes, with small clustered flowers; bracts membranous, persistent. Bracteoles lanceolate, membranous, persistent. Hypanthium long. Calyx tubular, 5-lobed; abaxial lobe narrow and distinct, adaxial 4 lobes connate. Corolla yellowish orange; standard orbicular, broadly ovate, or obovate, without an auricle, base narrowly cuneate, apex emarginate; wings oblong to obovate, shorter than standard, distinct, auriculate; keels similar to wings. Stamens 10, monadelphous, basal part closed or tubular; anthers dimorphic, alternate with longer 5 almost basifixed and shorter 5 dorsifixed. Ovary linear, sessile, with 2 or 3 ovules; style thin and straight; stigma terminal, calyptriform, extremely small. Legume a loment, oblong to ellipsoid, small, depressed, without a stipe, with coarse reticulate veins, often tuberculate, with 1 or 2 articles, indehiscent, apex with a beak. Seeds ovoid or reniform; hilum usually oblique, with a prominent radicle lobe.
Hypanthium elongate, pedicel-like; cal-lobes unequal, the lowest triangular, acute, larger than the 4 ovate-oblong obtuse upper, the 2 uppermost connate about half-length; standard broadly obovate to orbicular; wings shorter than the standard, oblong-obovate, clawed, biauriculate at the base of the blade; keel curved upward, about equaling the wings; stamens 10, monadelphous, the anthers alternately oblong and subglobose; joints of the fr 2, the lowest generally sterile and stipe-like, the upper fertile, flattened, tipped with the hooked persistent style; perennial herbs with pinnately trifoliolate lvs and small fls in short leafy spikes; stipules adnate to the petiole and connate into a tube around the stem, subulate-tipped. 25, mostly warm reg.
Corolla usually small, yellow; standard rounded or obovate, emarginate, narrowed into a basal claw; wings oblong or obovate, free, with a lateral basal spur and a small internal appendage and also with a series of small pockets on the blade; keel petals similarly spurred and appendaged.
Inflorescences usually dense, axillary or terminal, composed of l-flowered groups (reduced inflorescence parts) in spikes or panicles; primary bracts l(2–3)-foliolate, imbricate, persistent; secondary bracts lanceolate or irregularly 2–3-fid, hyaline, persistent, ciliate.
Ovary linear, sessile, 2–3-ovuled; style long and filiform, breaking off towards the middle or nearer the base after flowering, the lower part persistent, recurved or revolute with the dilated apex simulating a stigma; true stigma terminal minute.
Flowers subsessile, accompanied by 1–2 persistent linear hyaline ciliate bracteoles and sometimes by a plumose filiform axis representing a reduced part of an inflorescence now no longer present.
Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, or abnormally 1-foliolate; stipules adnate to the petiole for most of their length, persistent, biapiculate; stipels absent.
Calyx 5-lobed; lobes joined at the base, membranous, the lowest lobe longer than the rest, the upper pair joined for about half their length.
Fruit oblong, compressed, beaked, 1–2-jointed, but usually either the upper or lower loment aborted, reticulate or muriculate.
Seeds approximately ovoid or irregularly oblong, compressed; hilum often eccentric; aril somewhat developed or absent.
Stamens all joined; 5 anthers longer and sub-basifixed alternating with 5 shorter and versatile.
Erect or spreading perennial herbs or subshrubs, often somewhat hispid with glandular hairs.
Receptacle (hypanthium) long and filiform.
