Information

Perennial climbing herb 1.8–4 m long. Stem glabrescent or with short appressed tubercular-based hairs which on the older stem lose their fine points and leave characteristic minute hooks. Leaflets 3, 1.5–10 × 0.5–5.5 cm, ovate or oblong to ovate-lanceolate, obtuse acute to rounded and mucronulate at the apex, truncate, rounded or subcordate sometimes subhastate at the base, glabrous or sparsely pubescent; venation slightly raised and reticulate; petioles 1–10 cm long; rhachis 0.1–2 cm long; stipules 2–6 × c. 1 mm, lanceolate, bilobed at the base, multinerved. Peduncle 2–15 cm × 0.3–1 mm, glabrous to sparsely pubescent; rhachis usually 1-noded, rarely up to 5-noded, internodes 2–6 mm long. Flower pink or (in Zambia) whitish, 11–15 mm long; pedicel 1–3 mm long, not really expanding as the pod matures; bracteoles 1.5–2.5 mm long, oblong-lanceolate, 1-nerved. Calyx pubescent or glabrous; tube 2–3 mm long; lobes 1–4 mm long, the lower slightly longer, the upper pair united to form an emarginate to apiculate lip. Standard asymmetrical, without appendages; keel twisted towards the right, curved inward for c. 260°, the left-hand petal with a small but distinct upward pocket just behind the middle. Ovary 11–15-ovuled. Pod 7–9.5 cm × 3.5–4.5 mm, linear cylindrical, almost straight, glabrous or covered with hooked hairs, with a short curved beak. Seed 4–5 × 2–2.5 × 1.8 mm; hilum excentric; aril excentric.