Short-lived perennial with a taproot, up to 1 m. tall.. Hairs on stems rather sparse, appressed or spreading, white.. Leaves unifoliolate; stipules subulate, ± 5 mm. long; petiole ± 2 mm., distinct from the ± 1.5 mm. petiolule; blade narrowly oblong or oblanceolate, 3.5–6 cm. long, up to 14 mm. wide, rounded and mucronate at apex, cuneate at base, glabrous above, silky strigose beneath; midrib prominent beneath; chief lateral nerves ± 9, not very prominent.. Flowers reddish-purple, 2–3 together in the upper leaf-axils and sometimes also in terminal pseudoracemes; bracts narrowly triangular, persistent, ± 3.5 mm. long; pedicels 2–2.5 mm. long.. Calyx golden-brown silky outside, 6–7 mm. long, the ovate-acuminate teeth about as long as the tube, the upper pair somewhat united at the base.. Standard golden-brown silky outside, ovate, emarginate, 11–14 mm. long; keel glabrous, the claw 3 mm. long.. Upper filament lightly attached, dilated, bent and rather callous ± 1 mm. above the base; filament-sheath ± 7 mm., free parts 2–3 mm., anthers 0.6 mm. long.. Style ± 5 mm. long, glabrous, linear, bent sharply at the base, the tip incurved with a few short hairs.. Pod slightly upcurved, 5–5.5 cm. long, 3.5 mm. wide, silky, white on the sides, brown at the sutures.. Seeds ± 8, longitudinal, rounded oblong-subcylindrical, 3–4 × 1.6–2.2 × ± 1–6 mm.; hilum two-fifths along the side, hardly arillate.. Fig. 31,p. 174.
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