Rice Bean

Plant suberect to climbing, densely hairy, hairs stiff, deciduous, deflexed, stipules 8-12 mm, biramous, pilose. Leaf pinnately trifoliolate; petiole c. 2.0-15.0 (-37) cm, pilose; stipel c. 7-8 mm long; petiolule c. 3-4 mm long, rough; lamina c. 2.5-10 cm long, 1.5-8.0 cm broad, 1-3-lobed or oblique, tip acute-acuminate, puberulous; stipules 5 mm or more long. Inflorescence an axillary peduncled raceme, peduncle (1.2)-5-15 cm long, pubescent; bracts c. 2.5-3.0 mm long, minutely pubescent, caducous; pedicel 3-4 mm long, pubescent, 2 bracteoles at the base of the calyx, 3-3.5 mm long, glabrescent. Calyx c. 4 mm long, pubescent, teeth c. 2 mm. Corolla yellow. Vexillum 9-12 mm, curved. Fruit 5.5-8.0 cm long, c. 4.0 mm broad, glabrous, 8-12-seeded.

Cultivated in tropics to warm temperate regions in Africa, Asia.

Distribution: Cultivated in Pakistan; India; Sikkim; China, Malaya.

450-2100 m