Tephrosia purpurea (L.) Pers.

Cracca purpurea I,. Sp. PI. 752. 1753
Calega purpurea h. Syst. Nat. ed. 10. 1172. 1759. Tephrosia purpurea Pers. Syn. PI. 2: 329. 1807. Tephrosia ascendens Macfad. Fl. Jam. 257. 1837. Cracca vilksa purpurea Kuntze. Rev. Gen. 174. 1891.
A perennial herb; stems copiously branched and flexuose, 3-6 dm. high, sparingly and finely strigose or glabrate; leaves 2-10 cm. long; stipules linear-subulate, 3-5 mm. long; petiole 5-10 mm. long; leaflets 7-21. narrowly oblanceolate, obtuse or rounded at the apex, glabrous or sparingly strigose above, somewhat silky-strigose beneath; racemes mostly opposite the leaves, lax, including the peduncle 1-15 cm. long; bracts subulate, small; calyx silkystrigulose, the tube about 2 mm. long, the lobes 2 mm. long, subulate; corolla 6-9 mm. long, red; banner orbicular-obovate, short-clawed; wings broadly obliquely oblanceolate; pod 3-4 cm. long, 4 mm. wide, minutely strigose, 3-6-seeded, somewhat arcuate upward; seeds oblongreniform, 3 mm. long.
Type locality: Ceylon.
Distribution: Jamaica and Hispaniola; Sinaloa to Guerrero; Panama; also in Colombia; naturalized from India.