Trees, shrubs, or herbs, sometimes climbing or decumbent, very often bearing root-nodules that harbor nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Leaves alternate or rarely opposite, pinnate or bipinnate, less often palmately compound or 3-foliolate, seldom 1-foliolate or simple, or modified into narrow phyllodes; petiole present or absent; stipules and stipels present or absent, sometimes stipules developed into spines. Flowers bisexual, rarely unisexual, actinomorphic (Mimosoideae), ± zygomorphic (Caesalpinioideae) to very zygomorphic (Papilionoideae), mostly in racemes, corymbs, spikes, heads, or panicles. Sepals (3-)5(or 6), free or connate into a tube, sometimes bilabiate, rarely reduced or obsolete. Petals (0-)5(or 6), usually isomerous with sepals, seldom fewer or none, imbricate or valvate, distinct and often highly differentiated into papilionaceous corolla: upper petal (standard) outermost, 2 lateral petals (wings) ± parallel with each other, lower 2 innermost petals usually connate by their lower margins and forming a keel. Stamens mostly 10, sometimes fewer or more numerous, distinct or often connate by their filaments to form a closed or open sheath, monadelphous or diadelphous, anther 2-locular, opening lengthwise or by pores, uniform or dimorphic and then alternately basifixed and dorsifixed; pollen simple or compound. Gynoecium nearly always of a solitary carpel (rarely 2 or more distinct carpels); ovary superior, 1-locular or sometimes transversely, rarely longitudinally septate; ovules 1 to numerous, inserted on adaxial suture. Legumes dehiscent by one or both sutures, or indehiscent, sometimes winged, sometimes jointed and breaking up into 1-seeded segments. Seeds without or with very scanty endosperm, sometimes strophiolate.

Wu Te-lin, Chen Pang-yu, Wei Chao-fen, Chen Te-chao, Hu Chia-chi, Cheng Hsi-chang & Li Lin-chu. 1988. Leguminosae (1). In: Chen Te-chao, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 39: 1-233; Chen Techao, Chen Pangyu, Fang Yunyi, Zheng Chaozong, Chang Rohwei, Ding Chensen, Li Jiaolan, Ma Chiyun & Wei Zhi. 1994. Leguminosae (2). In: Wei Zhi, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 40: 1-362; Yang Yenchin, Huang Puhua, Fu Peiyun, Li Jiyun, Chen Youan, Lee Shukang, Chang Benneng, Wei Yuetsung, Huang Deai, Wei Chaofen, Wu Telin & Wei Siqi. 1995. Leguminosae (3). In: Lee Shukang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 41: 1-405; Fu Kuntsun, Chang Chenwan, He Shanbow, Ho Yechi, Ding Chensen, Liou Yingxen & Li Peichun. 1993. Leguminosae (4). In: Fu Kuntsun, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 42(1): 1-384; Zhang Zhenwan, Xu Langran, Wei Zhi, Wei Siqi, Huang Yizhi, Xia Zhendai, Cui Hongbin, Li Peiqiong, Li Jiaolan, Yang Chunyu, Wen Hequn & Huang Deai. 1998. Leguminosae (5). In: Cui Hongbin, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 42(2): 1-467.

About 650 genera and ca. 18,000 species: distributed worldwide, woody genera mostly in the S Hemisphere and the tropics, herbaceous genera mostly in temperate regions, very numerous in Mediterranean-climate areas; 29 tribes (three or four introduced), 167 genera (one endemic, 32 or 33 introduced), and 1,673 species (690 endemic, 131-134 introduced) in China.

(Authors: Xu Langran (徐朗然 Xu Lang-rang)[1], Chen Dezhao (陈德昭 Chen Te-chao)[2], Zhu Xiangyun (朱相云)[3], Huang Puhua (黄普华 Huang Pu-hwa)[4], Wei Zhi (韦直)[5], Sa Ren (萨仁)3, Zhang Dianxiang (张奠湘)2, Bao Bojian (包伯坚)3, Wu Delin (吴德邻 Wu Te-lin)2, Sun Hang (孙航)[6], Gao Xinfen (高信芬)[7], Liu Yingxin (刘媖心 Liou Yingxin, Liu Ying-hsin)[8], Chang Zhaoyang (常朝阳)[9], Li Jianqiang (李建强)[10], Zhang Mingli (张明理)3; Dieter Podlech[11], Hiroyoshi Ohashi[12], Kai Larsen[13], Stanley L. Welsh[14], Michael A. Vincent[15], Michael G. Gilbert[16], Les Pedley[17], Brian D. Schrire[18], Gennady P. Yakovlev[19], Mats Thulin[20], Ivan C. Nielsen[21], Byoung-Hee Choi[22], Nicholas J. Turland[23], Roger M. Polhill18, Supee Saksuwan Larsen13, Ding Hou[24], Yu Iokawa[25], C. Melanie Wilmot-Dear18, Gregory Kenicer[26], Tomoyuki Nemoto12, J. Michael Lock18, Alfonso Delgado Salinas[27], Tatiana E. Kramina[28], Anthony R. Brach[29], Bruce Bartholomew[30], Dmitry D. Sokoloff28)