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Annual or perennial herbs, glabrous to pubescent. Stems erect to ascending or prostrate. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate or palmately 3(or 5-9)-foliolate; stipules entire or toothed, partly adnate to petiole; leaflets toothed or entire. Inflorescences axillary or terminal. Flowers sessile or shortly pedicellate, in heads, short racemes, umbels, or rarely solitary; bracts small or absent, often connate into a dentate and membranous involucre. Calyx 5-10[-30]-veined, regular or bilabiate, after flowering sometimes strongly inflated; teeth equal or unequal. Corolla persistent, white, pink, purple, or yellow, sometimes inflated in fruit. Filaments some or all dilated at apex; anthers uniform. Ovary with 1-12 ovules. Legume indehiscent, enclosed by marcescent calyx and petals. Seeds 1 or 2(-9), ovoid to spherical or reniform.
Annual to perennial, procumbent to erect herbs. Lvs palmately or pinnately 3-foliolate (rarely 5-9-foliolate, but not in N.Z. spp.); principal lateral veins terminating at leaflet margin often in a tooth; stipules adnate to petiole. Infls axillary or terminal, racemose, umbellate, or spicate, few-to many-flowered (if many-flowered then fls usually forming dense heads); bracts present, 0, or reduced to glandular hairs. Calyx teeth 5, usually subequal or the lower longer. Corolla usually persistent after flowering. Vexillary filament free, the others united into a sheath split adaxially; anthers uniform. Style glabrous; stigma capitate or hooked. Pod 2-valved, ± straight, usually indehiscent, very rarely dehiscent, not armed, 1-2-(10)-seeded; seeds estrophiolate, smooth and rounded.
Cal-tube campanulate to tubular, sometimes oblique, the lobes setaceous to triangular, often unequal; pet all separate (spp. 15–17) or ± united into a tube, usually withering and persistent after anthesis; standard ovate to oblong or obovate, often folded about the wings or with only its summit outwardly curved; stamens 10, diadelphous, filaments dilated below the anthers; fr short, straight, often included in the persistent cal, dehiscent or indehiscent, 1–6-seeded; herbs with 3-foliolate, serrulate lvs and small fls in heads, spikes, or head-like racemes or umbels. In the absence of fr, our spp. may be distinguished from Medicago by their strongly bilabiate cal. 250, widespread.
heads, umbels or as short racemes on ascending peduncles. Flowers small; calyx tubular, glabrous or pubescent, the 5 teeth usually bristle tipped, equal or nearly so; keel petals shorter than the wing petals, some or all of the petals connate and adnate to the staminal sheath; stamens diadelphous, some or all of the filaments apically expanded, the anthers alike; ovary small, few-ovulate, the styles short, curved, glabrous, the stigma minute, capitate. Fruits small, mostly enclosed in the calyx, mostly indehiscent, thin; seeds few (or 1).
Leaves digitately or pinnately (T. campestre) 3-foliolate (rarely 5-foliolate outside the Flora Zambesiaca area); leaflets mostly denticulate; stipules well developed, basally adnate to the petiole often also sheathing the stem, herbaceous or membranaceous.
Corolla purple, pink, white or yellow, glabrous, usually persistent; standard free or connate at the base with the wings and keel; wings often longer than keel; keel obtuse.
Racemes axillary, less often ± terminal, usually contracted and capitate, or spicate or umbellate, pedunculate or sessile; bracts present or absent; bracteoles absent.
Calyx tubular or campanulate, (5)11-or more-nerved, sometimes bilabiate, accrescent, inflated, the mouth open or closed by a callosity or by a ring of hairs.
Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves mostly trifoliolate, the leaflets minutely toothed at the apex. Inflorescences axillary or pseudo terminal, disposed as
Ovary small, sessile or shortly stipitate, 1-or few-ovulate; style straight, slightly incurved towards the tip; stigma small, punctate or capitate.
Pod small, ± included in the persistent calyx and corolla, usually membranous, indehiscent or rarely dehiscent.
Stamens with free portions of filaments usually dilated at the apex; vexillary filament free; anthers uniform.
Seeds 1–2, globular to ovoid, reniform or lenticular.
Flowers pedicellate or sessile.
Annual or perennial herbs.
