广东蝶豆 guang dong die dou

Shrublets, with several succulent fusiform roots. Stems cylindric, slightly zigzag, internode short, pubescent. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate; stipules ovate or ovate-lanceolate to ob­long, ca. 1 cm, pubescent; petiole 0.5-2.5 cm, villous; stipels linear-lanceolate, 5-6 mm; petiolules ca. 2 mm, villous; leaflets subequal to each other or terminal larger, oblong, 6.5-14 × 2.8-5.5 cm, papery or almost leathery, adaxially glabrous, lateral veins 9-12 pairs, base obtuse or almost cuneate, apex acute or sometimes rounded, usually with mucro, villous. Raceme axil­lary, 1-2.5 cm, (1 or)2- or 3-flowered, villous; peduncle 0.5-2.5 cm; bracts ovate, 3-5 mm. Flowers ca. 3 cm; bracteoles ovate-lanceolate, 4-5 mm. Calyx membranous, ca. 2 cm, 5-lobed; lobes lanceolate, subequal to tube, hairy, apex acuminate. Co­rolla white or pale yellow, ca. 3 cm; standard obovate, densely pubescent; wings and keels small, with claws. Ovary with short stipe, hairy, many ovuled. Legume light brown, linear-oblong, 3.5-6 × ca. 0.6 cm, glabrous or pubescent, apex long beaked, shortly stipitate. Seeds 2-7, black, elliptic, ca. 4 × 3 mm. Fl. Apr-Oct.

Deserts, wastelands on slopes, roadsides. Guangdong, Guangxi [Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam].

Hance (J. Bot. 16: 9. 1878) applied the name "Clitoria macro­phylla Wallich" to this species, but that name is a nomen nudum and was therefore not validly published.

This species is used medicinally.