Annual or perennial climbing or trailing herb, more rarely suberect, 0·2–1·8 m. long.. Stems ridged, at first densely spreading pilose with usually rather tubercular-based hairs, later glabrescent.. Leaflets 3, sometimes with a pale chevron mark, ovate or ovate-triangular in outline, 1·2–10 cm. long, 1·1–6·5 cm. wide, rounded or subacute to acuminate at the apex, rounded, truncate or subhastate at the base, sometimes distinctly 3-lobed, at first rather dense adpressed silvery pilose, later more sparsely pilose; petiole 1–8·5(–14) cm. long; rhachis 0·5–1·4(–1·9) cm. long; petiolules 1–4 mm. long; stipules lanceolate, 3–12 mm. long, bilobed and unequally prolonged at the base.. Inflorescences axillary, subumbellate, few–several-flowered; rhachis 0·3–2 cm. long, with conspicuous glandular nodes; peduncle 1–45 cm. long, often uncinulate towards the apex; pedicels 2–4 mm. long; brac-teoles linear, 1·5–5 mm. long, deciduous.. Calyx glabrous or pubescent or with longer tubercular based hairs; tube 2–3 mm. long; lobes deltoid to linear, 0·15–1·7 cm. long, often drawn out at the tips, the upper pair practically free so that the calyx appears equally 5-fid, the margins often conspicuously ciliate with long hairs.. Standard mauve, pink-magenta or blue, yellow inside at base with darker purple guide lines, sometimes greenish outside, oblate, 1–2·3 cm. long and wide, glabrous; wings blue, mauve or pink; keel pale, tinged blue, sometimes twisted but beak not incurved.. Pods erect, linear-cylindrical, 3–9·5 cm. long, 2–3 mm. wide, covered with very short, curved, tubercular-based hairs or small scale-like hairs, 14–25-seeded.. Seeds dark red or grey with dense black mottling, narrowly oblong, angular, longest dimension 2·5–4·5 mm., shorter dimension 1·5–2·8 mm., 1·3–2·5 mm. thick; hilum small, subcentral; aril not developed.
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A climbing bean herb. It can grow each year from seeds or keep growing for a few years. The leaves are compound. They have 3 leaflets and the leaflets have side lobes. The flowers are blue tinged with purple. The fruit is a narrow pod. There are at least 4 subspecies.
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