Rhynchosia Lour.

Rhynchosia

Herbaceous or woody vines, twining. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate, the lower surface with numerous yellow resinous dots; stipules deciduous; stipels minute. Inflorescences of axillary racemes, with the flowers sparse or clustered; bracts minute, persistent or deciduous. Calyx campanulate, with 4-5 elongate lobes; corolla yellow, the standard obovate or rounded, slightly retuse at the apex, unguiculate and auriculate at the base, the wings unguiculate, with a curved appendage at the base of the inner margin, the keel scarcely longer than the wings; stamens 10, monadelphous or diadelphous; ovary superior, short-stipitate, with few or numerous ovules, the style glabrous, curved, the stigma capitate. Fruit an oblong legume, flattened, apiculate at the apex, usually dehiscent by valves that twist on opening; seeds few or numerous, flattened, rounded or elliptical. A genus of about 200 species, of pantropical distribution.