General description:- Trees, shrubs or herbs.
Leaves:- Alternate, rarely opposite, simple to 2-pinnate, stipulate.
Flowers:- Usually hermaphrodite, usually 5-merous. Sepals usually united. Petals free or somewhat united (connate). Stamens usually 10, sometimes less than 10 or numerous. Ovary a single, single-celled (unilocular) carpel; style 1.
Fruit:- A dehiscent (splitting open to release the seeds), 2-valved or indehiscent, occasionally lomentaceous (a flat fruit, constricted between each seed) legume. Seeds usually without endosperm.
A large number of species, both native and introduced, are cultivated for food, for fodder and for ornament. Those most frequently utilized as food are to be found in Cicer, Glycine, Glycyrrhiza, Lens, Pisum, Vicia and Vigna. The edible part is usually the seed or legume, or both. Species of these genera and many others, particularly in Anthyllis, Coronilla, Lathyrus, Lotus, Lupinus, Medicago, Melilotus, Trifolium and Trigonella are cultivated for fodder on a large scale or are planted to improve pasture.
ANAGYRIS
General description:- Shrubs.
Leaves:- 3-foliolate; stipules united (connate), leaf-opposed.
Flowers:- In short axillary racemes. Calyx bell-shaped (campanulate), almost 2-lipped (sub-bilabiate); stamens free.
Fruit:- Legume, supported on a stem-like structure (stipitate), constricted and septate between the seeds, compressed, dehiscent. Seeds few.
Key features:-
1) Shrubs or trees.
2) Stamens free.
3) Stipules connate, conspicuous.
ANTHYLLIS
General description:- Shrubs or herbs.
Leaves:- Usually unevenly pinnate (imparipinnate), rarely simple or 3-foliolate. Stipules small, falling early (caducous).
Flowers:- Usually in dense heads, rarely in fascicles or borne singly in the bract-axils. Calyx tubular, bell-shaped (campanulate) or constricted near the apex, with equal or unequal teeth; corolla variously coloured; stamens in one bundle and united by the filaments (monadelphous), or the upper stamen free for up to ½ its length.
Measurements of the calyx given in the keys and descriptions are at anthesis and include the teeth unless these are specifically excluded.
Fruit:- Legume sessile or stipitate, frequently indehiscent or tardily dehiscent, usually completely included within the persistent calyx. Seeds 1-many.
Key features:-
1) Upper part of the calyx not breaking away at anthesis.
2) Calyx with 5 ± equal teeth, shorter than the tube; not or only slightly bilabiate.
3) Calyx not split to the base.
4) Calyx ± tubular.
5) Stamens variously connate.
6) Calyx inflated, 4·5-6 mm wide in flower, up to 12 mm wide in fruit and enclosing the legume.
7) Stipules free, often minute or absent.
8) Legume ± included in the persistent calyx.
9) Flowers solitary or in clusters of 2-3.
ASTRAGALUS
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs or small shrubs.
Leaves:- unevenly or odd pinnate (imparipinnate) or evenly pinnate (paripinnate), sometimes terminating in a spine; leaflets entire.
Flowers:- In racemes or axillary clusters, stemless or stemmed (sessile or pedicellate). Calyx funnel-shaped (infundibuliform), tubular or bell-shaped (campanulate), sometimes inflated in fruit, with distinct, equal or unequal teeth; keel not ending abruptly in a very short, straight point (mucronate) at the apex (very rarely adaxially mucronate); stamens 10, in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous) (very rarely 5, monadelphous); stigma and style glabrous.
Fruit:- Legume usually dehiscent, very varied in shape and texture, glabrous or hairy, unilocular to bilocular. Seeds 1-many.
Key features:-
1) Stipules not forming spines.
2) Keel not dark red, black or beaked, but sometimes mucronate at the apex.
3) Leaves imparipinnate.
4) Umbels without an involucre.
5) Acaulescent herbs.
6) Mucro on the adaxial side of the keel.
7) Corolla c. 3 mm.
8) Stamens diadelphous.
9) Style glabrous.
Descriptions of peduncles and racemes refer to their appearance at anthesis; when the length of the peduncle is compared with the length of the leaf, the leaf subtending it is intended.
A. NUMMULARIUS group
General description:- Acaulescent, with branched stock.
Leaves:- 3-25 cm; leaflets 8-12 pairs, ovate-elliptical to suborbicular; stipules 7-20 mm, lanceolate.
Flowers:- Peduncles up to 5 cm; racemes with 3-10 flowers; pedicels 3-7 mm; bracts 1/2-2/3 as long as tube. Calyx villous, the teeth 1/3 as long as or up to slightly longer than tube. Corolla yellow; standard glabrous or sparsely hairy.
Fruit:- Legume laterally compressed or trigonous, semi-bilocular.
Subgen. CERCIDOTHRIX
General description:- Perennials, sometimes producing annual shoots from a woody subterranian base (suffruticose); hairs usually attached at or near to the middle (medifixed).
Leaves:- Imparipinnate; rhachis sometimes spine-like and then terminal leaflet falling early (caducous); stipules free, adnate to the petiole, or connate to each other around the stem.
Flowers:- Between spreading and erect (erecto-patent) to erect, or pendent, usually subsessile. Calyx tubular, not inflated in fruit.
Subgen. EPIGLOTTIS
General description:- Annuals; hairs attached at or near the middle (medifixed), straight, appressed, with one arm much shorter than the other.
Leaves:- Imparipinnate.
Subgen. PHACA
General description:- Perennials, usually sparsely hairy or subglabrous; hairs simple, white, usually appressed.
Leaves:- Imparipinnate; stipules usually free from each other, but sometimes partly adnate to the petiole.
Flowers:- Pedicellate, usually more or less pendent at anthesis. Calyx campanulate, not inflated in fruit, the mouth oblique.
Subgen. TRAGACANTHA
General description:- Perennials, woody at the base; hairs simple.
Leaves:- Paripinnate, the rhachis ending in a sharp spine; stipules attached to, surface to surface (adnate) to the petiole for at least ½ their length, but free from each other.
Flowers:- In dense, sessile racemes in the axils of leaves, partly concealed by the stipules, usually confined to the middle of the stem. Calyx not inflated in fruit, hidden by its dense, covered with long, shaggy hairs (villous indumentum), the teeth splitting to the base in fruit.
Fruit:- Legume c. 5 mm, ovoid-ellipsoid, villous.
Subgen. TRIMENIAEUS
General description:- Usually annuals; hairs usually simple.
Leaves:- Imparipinnate.
BITUMINARIA
General description:- Perennial herbs or shrubs.
Leaves:- 3-foliolate, marked with dots or translucent glands (glandular-punctate); stipules small, free.
Flowers:- In axillary heads or racemes, with a pair of 3-fid bracts at the base. Calyx bell-shaped (campanulate), with 5 unequal teeth; corolla blue-violet to white; keel obtuse; stamens in one bundle and united by the filaments (monadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume indehiscent. Seeds 1.
Key features:-
1) At least some leaves 3-foliolate.
2) Leaflets conspicuously glandular-punctate.
CALICOTOME
General description:- Spiny shrubs; branches alternate.
Leaves:- 3-foliolate, petiolate.
Flowers:- Axillary, solitary or in umbellate fascicles or ebracteate racemes. Calyx tubular, with 5 short teeth, but with the apical portion breaking away as the flower expands, leaving a cup-like remnant. Corolla yellow.
Fruit:- Legume narrowly oblong, the sutures usually somewhat thickened. Seeds several, without an appendage to the seed coat (estrophiolate).
Key features:-
1) Leaves not spine-tipped, often falling early (caducous).
2) Calyx tubular, with 5 short teeth, the upper portion breaking away when in full bloom (anthesis) to leave a cuplike remnant.
CHAMAECYTISUS
General description:- Unarmed shrubs or the branches sometimes spinose.
Leaves:- 3-foliolate.
Flowers:- In leafy racemes or in terminal heads subtended by a leafy involucre. Calyx tubular, 2-lipped (bilabiate); upper lip with 2 teeth, lower with 3 teeth, the teeth much smaller than the lips; corolla yellow, rarely white or purple; stigma capitate or extrorse.
Fruit:- Legume dehiscent, somewhat compressed, black. Seeds with an out growth (strophiolate).
Key features:-
1) Calyx ± distinctly bilabiate, tubular.
2) Upper lip of calyx with 2 short teeth;
3) Leaves 3-foliolate.
CICER
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs with glandular hairs.
Leaves:- Usually imparipinnate, rarely paripinnate and terminated by a tendril; stipules herbaceous.
Flowers:- Solitary or in axillary racemes. Calyx gibbous at the base, bilabiate, but sometimes the teeth subequal; corolla white or violet; stamens united into two sets by their filaments (diadelphous); style glabrous.
Fruit:- Legume ovate or oblong, dehiscent. Seeds 1-4.
Key features:-
1) Stipules not attached (adnate) to the petiole.
2) Calyx actino-morphic or if bilabiate, the upper lip with 2 teeth, the lower with 3 teeth.
2) Stem and leaves glandular-pubescent.
3) Variously hairy and glandular, sometimes sparsely so.
4) Calyx gibbous at the base.
CORONILLA
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs or dwarf shrubs.
Leaves:- Imparipinnate, rarely simple or 3-foliolate; stipules various, free or connate.
Flowers:- In axillary heads. Calyx bell-shaped (campanulate), more or less bilabiate; keel acute; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume, lomentaceous, terete or longitudinally ridged or angled, not constricted between the segments.
Key features:-
1) Segments of the legume linear or oblong, straight or slightly curved.
2) Stamens diadelphous.
3) Leaflets not or very minutely glandular-punctate.
4) Legume lomentaceous, glabrous.
5) Corolla 4-8 mm.
DORYCNIUM
General description:- Perennial herbs or small shrubs.
Leaves:- 5-foliolate, the lowest pair simulating stipules; stipules minute, free.
Flowers:- In axillary heads. Calyx bell-shaped (campanulate), with 5 equal or unequal teeth; corolla white or pink, with an obtuse, dark red or black keel; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume oblong to ovoid-globose, dehiscent. Seeds 1-many.
Key features:-
1) Calyx less than 4·5 mm wide, not inflated.
2) Keel very dark red or black, not beaked.
EBENUS
General description:- Perennial herbs or small shrubs.
Leaves:- 3-foliolate or imparipinnate; stipules connate, scarious, divided at the apex.
Flowers:- In axillary heads or racemes, subtended by thin,dry (scarious) bracts. Calyx tubular-bell-shaped (campanulate), with 5 equal teeth; corolla pink or purple; keel obtuse, obliquely ending abruptly (truncate); stamens usually in one bundle and united by the filaments (monadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume included in the calyx, indehiscent, compressed. Seeds 1-2.
Key features:-
1) Umbels with an involucre of scarious bracts.
2) Keel not endind in a sharp point (mucronate) at the apex.
3) Stamens monadelphous.
4) Rhachis very short so that the leaves are almost digitate.
5) Leaflets 1-2 pairs.
6) Corolla bright pink.
7) Flowers in dense axillary racemes.
8) Calyx-teeth longer than tube.
GENISTA/TELINE
General description:- Spiny or unarmed shrubs.
Leaves:- 1- or 3-foliolate, often falling early (caducous); stipules absent or small, often represented by a subglobose swelling (pulvinus).
Flowers:- In heads or racemes or in axillary clusters, rarely solitary. Calyx 2-lipped (bilabiate); upper lip deeply 2-fid, lower 3-toothed; corolla yellow; stamens in one bundle and united by the filaments (monadelphous).
Legume:- Splitting open to release the seeds or not (dehiscent or indehiscent), ovoid to linear-oblong. Seeds 1-many, without an appendage to the seed coat (estrophiolate)
Key features:-
1) Pedicel 1-3 mm.
2) Legume hairy.
3) Flowers axillary or in axillary clusters; umbellate heads.
4) Standard distinctly shorter than keel.
5) Seeds estrophiolate.
6) Upper lip of calyx deeply 2-fid.
7) Leaves and branches mostly alternate; often 1-foliolate.
8) Calyx not inflated.
9) Legume ovoid, oblong or falcate, dehiscent, not inflated.
Sect. ACANTHOSPARTUM
General description:- Shrubs with opposite branches, the branches terminated by a spine.
Leaves:- 3-foliolate, opposite or alternate.
Flowers:- Standard rhombic, shorter than or exceeding the keel.
Legume:- ovoid-acuminate. Seeds 1-2.
GLYCYRRHIZA
General description:- Perennial herbs, with some or all parts of the plant glandular and often viscid.
Leaves:- Imparipinnate. Stipules membranous, caducous.
Flowers:- Calyx weakly bilabiate; corolla whitish-violet, rarely pale yellow; stamens diadelphous or monadelphous.
Fruit:- Legume compressed or constricted between the seeds, indehiscent or tardily dehiscent, usually brown. Seeds 1-8.
Key features:
1) Corolla less than 20 mm.
HIPPOCREPIS
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs.
Leaves:- Unevenly or odd pinnate (imparipinnate); stipules small, linear or lanceolate, free.
Flowers:- In axillary heads, rarely solitary. Calyx tubular-bell-shaped (campanulate) with 5 subequal teeth; corolla yellow; keel acute; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous).
Legume:- Flat, constricted between each seed (lomentaceous), laterally compressed; segments lunate to horseshoe-shaped, or flat and rectangular with a semicircular to orbicular sinus, which has a curved protuberance at its base enclosing the seed.
Key features:-
1) Keel acute.
2) Legume not or only faintly with netted veins (reticulate).
3) Legume segments lunate or horseshoe-shaped to rectangular with a semicircular to orbicular sinus which has a curved protuberance at its base.
4) Flowers solitary, axillary.
5) Corolla 4-7 mm.
All species occur in dry, usually sunny, situations.
Width of the legume refers to the width at the articulation.
HYMENOCARPUS
General description:- Annual.
Leaves:- Simple to unevenly or odd pinnate (imparipinnate); stipules minute, membranous.
Flowers:- In heads. Calyx bell-shaped (campanulate), with 5 equal teeth; corolla yellow; keel beaked; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume not splitting open to release their seeds (indehiscent), spirally twisted and flattened so that it is suborbicular in outline; outer margin membranous-winged.
Key features:-
2) Lower leaves simple; upper leaves with 2-3 pairs of leaflets.
3) Legume spirally twisted and flattened so that it is circular in outline.
LATHYRUS
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs, often climbing by means of tendrils.
Leaves:- Usually terminated by a pair of opposite leaflets (paripinnate) and terminated by a tendril, rarely reduced to a tendril or a grass-like phyllode (modified and flattened green leaf-stalks, which function as leaves); leaflets usually distinctly parallel-veined; stipules usually herbaceous.
Flowers:- In axillary racemes, or solitary, axillary. Calyx actinomorphic to 2-lipped (bilabiate); keel usually obtuse; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous); style pubescent on the upper side, rarely glabrous.
Fruit:- Legume usually oblong, compressed, dehiscent. Seeds 2 or more.
Key features:-
1) Legume without glandular tubercles (sometimes with glandular hairs); splitting open to release the seeds (dehiscent).
2) Leaves simple or 1-foliolate, sometimes very small; linear, grass-like.
3) Flowers with 5 petals, 2 or more sometimes united (connate).
4) Leaves consisting of a tendril only (but with large leaf-like stipules).
5) Stem and leaves not glandular-pubescent.
6) Leaflets parallel-veined.
7) Style pubescent on the upper side only.
Most species occur in dry grassland or scrub or as ruderals.
The majority of the species can readily be separated from Vicia by the often winged stem, the parallel-veined, and often fewer leaflets and the style-pubescence.
LENS
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs, often climbing by means of tendrils.
Leaves:- Terminated by a pair of opposite leaflets (paripinnate), usually with a tendril, very rarely unevenly or odd pinnate (imparipinnate); stipules usually small, herbaceous.
Flowers:- Solitary, axillary or in axillary fascicles or racemes. calyx-teeth equal and at least twice as long as the tube; keel obtuse; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous); style pubescent on the upper side.
Legume:- More or less oblong, strongly compressed, splitting open to release the seeds (dehiscent). Seeds usually 2 or more, flat, orbicular.
1) Calyx-teeth not leaf-like, all equal and at least twice as long as the tube.
2) Stipules not more than 2 cm.
3) Leaflets pinnately veined.
4) Style pubescent on the upper side.
LOTUS
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs, often woody at base.
Leaves:- Unevenly or odd pinnate (imparipinnate); leaflets 5, the lowest pair resembling stipules, rarely one of the lowest pair absent; stipules minute.
Flowers:- Solitary or in heads. Calyx bell-shaped (campanulate) or tubular-campanulate, actinomorphic or bilabiate; keel beaked; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume cylindrical, sometimes compressed, splitting open to release the seeds (dehiscent). Seeds numerous.
Sect. ERYTHROLOTUS
Flowers:- Calyx actinomorphic; corolla white, pink or purple; style not toothed.
Sect. KROKERIA
Flowers:- Calyx usually actinomorphic; corolla usually yellow; style not toothed.
Legume:- Very inflated and sulcate on the back.
Sect. LOTEA
Flowers:- Calyx bilabiate; corolla yellow; style not toothed.
Key features:-
1) Leaves with 5 leaflets, the upper 3 never obcordate.
2) Calyx ± bilabiate, the lateral teeth usually shorter than the rest, the upper teeth usually curved upwards.
3) Leaves with rhachis less than ½ as long as the lowest pair of leaflets.
4) Corolla 8 mm or more, usually about twice as long as calyx.
5) Calyx tubular-campanulate.
6) Lateral calyx-teeth at least 0·5 mm wide at middle, oblong or triangular-oblong.
L. CRETICUS Group
General description:-Perennials up to 50 cm, glabrous to densely sericeous.
Leaves:- Leaflets obovate to oblong-oblanceolate.
Flowers:- Heads (1-)2- to 6-flowered. Upper 2 calyx-teeth curved upwards, lateral 2 shorter than the lower.
Fruit:- Legume 20-50 x 1·5-2 mm.
Sect. LOTUS
Flowers:- Calyx usually actinomorphic; corolla usually yellow; style not toothed.
Fruit:- Legume not inflated
L. corniculatus group
General description:- Perennial herbs usually with a woody stock.
Flowers:- Calyx-teeth usually more or less equal, but sometimes curved; corolla 8-18 mm, yellow, sometimes orange or red and yellow.
Fruits:- Legume cylindrical, straight. Seeds many.
1) Perennial, woody at the base.
2) Standard not apiculate
3) Calyx campanulate not bilabiate, all shorter than the tube, ± equal, but sometimes curved. lateral calyx-teeth not more than 0·5 mm wide at the middle, filiform or linear-triangular with a triangular base.
5) Corolla bright yellow, orange or red.
6) Legume 1-3 mm diam. not sulcate on the back.
LUPINUS
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs, rarely shrubs.
Leaves:- Usually with finger-like lobes (digitate), stalked (petiolate); stipules attached to the base of the petiole (adnate).
Flowers:- In terminal racemes. Calyx 2-lipped (bilabiate), divided almost to the base; corolla variously coloured; wings united (connate) at the apex; keel beaked; stamens in one bundle and united by the filaments (monadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume dehiscent, compressed, usually constricted between the seeds. Seeds 3-12, with a sunken hilum.
1) Lateral veins of the leaflets anastomosing and not reaching the margin.
2) At least some flowers in terminal or apparently terminal inflorescences.
3) Leaves digitate.
MEDICAGO
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs or small shrubs.
Leaves:- 3-foliolate, stipulate.
Flowers:- In axillary stemmed (pedunculate) racemes. Calyx bell-shaped (campanulate), with 5 nearly equal teeth; corolla falling early (caducous); stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous); filaments thread-like (filiform).
Fruit:- Legume longer than the calyx, nearly always indehiscent, usually spirally coiled, sometimes sickle-shaped (falcate), kidney-shaped (reniform) or almost straight, often spiny. Seeds 1-several.
Key features:-
1) Stamens diadelphous.
2) Filaments all filiform.
3) Legume coiled in 1 or more turns of a spiral; reniform or falcate, rarely almost straight. Less than 3 times as long as wide.
All the annual species grow in more or less open habitats, such as sea-shores, roadsides, cultivated fields or grassy places.
Subgen. CYMATIUM
Fruit:- Legume with a submarginal vein parallel with and close to the marginal vein; margin of legume usually thick.
Subgen. MEDICAGO
Fruit:- Legume without a submarginal vein parallel with and close to the marginal vein; margin of legume usually thin.
Subgen. TRIGONELLA
Flower:- Calyx usually campanulate.
Fruit:- Legume not inflated.
MELILOTUS
General description:- Annual, biennial or short-lived perennial herbs.
Leaves:- 3-foliolate; leaflets usually toothed.
Flowers:- In axillary racemes. Calyx-teeth subequal; corolla yellow or white, rarely tinged with blue or violet, deciduous, free from the staminal tube; stamens diadelphous, the filaments not dilated.
Fruit:- Legume globose to obovoid, rarely lanceolate-rhomboid, straight, indehiscent or very tardily dehiscent. Seeds 1-2, rarely more.
Key features:-
1) Legume ovate or obovate to subglobose.
2) Legume without or with a very short beak and without a membranous wing.
3) Legume straight or curved.
4) Perennial.
ONOBRYCHIS
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs.
Leaves:- unevenly or odd pinnate (imparipinnate); stipules free or united (connate).
Flowers:- In axillary racemes. Calyx bell-shaped (campanulate), with 5 equal teeth; corolla white, pink or purple, rarely yellow; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume indehiscent, more or less orbicular and compressed, with a distinct, usually toothed, margin and minutely pitted (foveolate) to reticulate-veined sides which often have teeth on the veins or ridges. Seeds 1-3.
Key features:-
1) Legume ± orbicular, the margin usually toothed, the sides reticulate-veined or foveolate and the veins often toothed;
2) Corolla white, pink or purple.
Sect. LOPHOBRYCHIS
General description:- Annual; stipules usually connate.
Flowers:- Racemes 2- to 8-flowered; standard glabrous; ovary straight.
Fruit:- Margin of the legume with 1 row of teeth, rarely unarmed.
Sect. ONOBRYCHIS
General description:- Perennial.
Flowers:- Stipules usually connate; racemes many-flowered; standard glabrous; ovary straight.
Fruits:- Margin of the legume with 1 row of teeth, rarely unarmed.
ONONIS
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs or dwarf shrubs, usually glandular-hairy.
Leaves:- 3-foliolate, sometimes simple or unevenly or odd pinnate (imparipinnate), leaflets usually toothed; stipules attached to (adnate) to the petiole.
Flowers:- In panicles, spikes, or racemes. Calyx bell-shaped (campanulate) or tubular; corolla yellow, pink or purple, sometimes nearly white; keel more or less beaked; stamens in one bundle and united by the filaments (monadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume oblong or ovate, dehiscent. Seeds 1-many.
Key features:-
1) Leaves 3-foliolate, or simple, but never suborbicular and cordate.
2) Adaxial petal outermost.
3) Principal lateral veins of the leaflets terminating at the margin; leaflets often toothed.
4) Plant glandular-pubescent, at least above.
5) Stamens monadelphous.
6) Legume straight or very slightly curved.
7) Calyx not pouch-like (gibbous) at the base.
8) Stipules adnate to petiole.
Sect. ONONIS
Flowers:- In racemes or very condensed panicles with the primary branches not more than 1·5 mm.
Fruit:- Legume usually erect or patent, ovate or rhombic; seeds few.
Sect. NATRIX
Flowers:- In panicles, the primary branches 1- to 3-flowered; fruiting pedicels usually more or less deflexed.
Fruit:- Legume oblong.
ORNITHOPUS
General description:- Annual.
Leaves:- Unevenly or odd pinnate i.e. with a single terminal leaflet (imparipinnate); stipules small, free, linear.
Flowers:- In axillary heads. Calyx tubular or bell-shaped (campanulate), with 5 equal teeth; keel obtuse; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume densely covered in short soft, matted hairs (tomentose), circular in cross section (terete) or compressed, usually constricted between the segments, strongly reticulate.
1) Plant eglandular.
2) Flowers in umbels or clusters, the pedicels arising ± from the same point.
3) Legume tomentaceous; strongly reticulate-veined.
4) Keel obtuse.
All species occur in dry, often acid, sandy places, or as ruderals.
PISUM
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs, often climbing by means of tendrils.
Leaves:- Usually terminated by a pair of opposite leaflets (paripinnate) and terminated by a tendril, rarely reduced to a tendril or a grass-like phyllode (modified and flattened green leaf-stalks, which function as leaves); leaflets usually distinctly parallel-veined; stipules usually herbaceous.
Flowers:- In axillary racemes, or solitary, axillary. Calyx actinomorphic to 2-lipped (bilabiate); calyx-teeth large and more or less leaf-like; keel usually obtuse; wings attached (adnate) to the keel; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous); style pubescent on the upper side, rarely glabrous, dilated at apex, longitudinally grooved with recurved margins.
Fruit:- Legume usually oblong, compressed, dehiscent. Seeds 2 or more.
Key features:-
1) Legume without glandular tubercles (sometimes with glandular hairs); splitting open to release the seeds (dehiscent).
2) Leaves simple or 1-foliolate, sometimes very small; linear, grass-like.
3) Flowers with 5 petals, 2 or more sometimes united (connate).
4) Leaves consisting of a tendril only (but with large leaf-like stipules).
5) Stem and leaves not glandular-pubescent.
6) Leaflets parallel-veined.
7) Style pubescent on the upper side only.
8) Stems circular in cross section (terete).
9) At least 2 calyx-teeth less than twice as long as the tube.
10) Calyx-teeth ± leaf-like.
11) Stipules up to 10 cm.
SCORPIURUS
General description:- Annual.
Leaves:- Simple, with 3-5 parallel veins; stipules free, linear.
Flowers:- Solitary or in axillary heads. Calyx bell-shaped (campanulate), with 5 equal teeth; corolla yellow or purplish; keel acute; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume lomentaceous or indehiscent, curved or variously contorted, longitudinally ridged, usually with spines or tubercles on the outer ridges.
Key features:-
1) Leaves obovate or elliptical, not grass-like.
SECURIGERA
General description:- Annual.
Leaves:- Unevenly or odd pinnate (imparipinnate); stipules small.
Flowers:- In axillary heads. Calyx bell-shaped (campanulate), 2-lipped (bilabiate); corolla yellow; keel beaked; stamens in one bundle and united by the filaments (monadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume linear, compressed, with thickened margins and a long beak, tardily dehiscent.
1) Legume dehiscent or indehiscent, not lomentaceous.
2) Keel beaked.
3) Leaves with 4-7 pairs of leaflets.
SPARTIUM
General description:- Unarmed shrubs.
Leaves:- 1-foliolate.
Flowers:- In lax, terminal, leafless, many-flowered racemes. Calyx spathe-like, split above, irregularly unilabiate (rarely bilabiate), with 5 short teeth; corolla yellow; stamens in one bundle and united by the filaments (monadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume linear-oblong, dehiscent, subseptate between the seeds. Seeds numerous, without an outgrowth of the outer seed covering (estrophiolate).
Key features:-
1) Calyx split to the base adaxially; not caducous.
HEDYSARUM - SULLA
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs.
Leaves:- Unevenly or odd (imparipinnate); stipules free or united (connate).
Flowers:- in axillary racemes. Calyx bell-shaped (campanulate), with 5 subequal teeth; corolla pink, purple or violet, rarely white or yellow; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume lomentaceous, more or less compressed, with up to 8 segments. Seeds 1 in each segment.
Key features:-
1) Unarmed herbs, shrubs or trees.
2) Legume lomentaceous.
3) Racemes (2-)4- to many-flowered
TETRAGONOLOBUS
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs, often woody at base.
Leaves:- Unevenly or odd pinnate (imparipinnate); leaflets 3-foliolate, the lowest pair resembling stipules, rarely one of the lowest pair absent; stipules herbaceous.
Flowers:- Solitary or paired. Calyx bell-shaped (campanulate) or tubular-campanulate, actinomorphic or bilabiate; calyx-teeth equal, keel beaked; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous).
Fruit:- Legume almost square in transverse section, with the angles winged or keeled, splitting open to release the seeds (dehiscent). Seeds numerous.
Key features:-
1) Stipules inserted on the stem, and attached (adnate) to the base of the petiole.
2) Legume with 2 or 4 longitudinal wings.
TRIFOLIUM
General description:- Annual, biennial or perennial herbs, rarely somewhat woody.
Leaves:- 3-foliolate, very rarely digitate with 5(-8) leaflets; leaflets usually toothed.
Flowers:- In heads or short spikes, very rarely solitary. Calyx-teeth equal or unequal; petals persistent or deciduous, attached (adnate) to each other and to the staminal tube; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous); all or 5 of the filaments dilated at the apex.
Fruit:- Legume, included in the calyx or shortly exserted, rarely much exceeding the calyx, indehiscent or dehiscent by a ventral suture or by an indurated lid. Seeds 1-4(-10).
Key features:-
1) Leaves unevenly or odd pinnate (imparipinnate) or digitate.
2) Principal lateral veins of the leaflets terminating at the margin, often in a tooth.
3) Glabrous or glabrescent, eglandular.
4) At least some petal-claws adnate to the staminal tube.
5) Corolla usually persistent in fruit.
7) Filaments of at least 5 stamens dilated at the apex.
Subgen. TRIFOLIUM
Flowers:- Ebracteate. Calyx-throat usually more or less closed with a ring of hairs or an annular or 2-lobed callosity.
Fruit:- Legume nearly always included in the calyx-tube, 1- to 2-seeded.
Sect. TRIFOLIUM
Flowers:- Heads usually spicate, rarely capitate. Flowers usually sessile, all fertile
Subgen. LOTOIDES
Flowers:- Subtended by free or united bracts (or short glandular hairs). Calyx-throat open, without a ring of hairs or a callosity.
Fruit:- Legume included in the calyx or exserted. Seeds (1-)2-4(-10).
Sect. CHRONOSEMIUM
Leaves:- Often pinnately 3-foliolate.
Flowers:- Bracts represented by a few, short, red glandular hairs. Calyx 5-veined, upper teeth shorter than the lower. Corolla eventually darkening, persistent and scarious.
Fruit:- Legume stalked, slightly exceeding calyx, 1(-2)-seeded.
Subgen. LOTOIDES
Flowers:- Subtended by free or united bracts (or short glandular hairs). Calyx-throat open, without a ring of hairs or a callosity.
Fruit:- Legume included in the calyx or exserted. Seeds (1-)2-4(-10).
Sect. MISTYLLUS
General description:- Glabrous annuals.
Flowers:- Heads pseudoterminal with prominent, glumaceous, striate, free bracts. Calyx 20- to 35-veined, inflated more or less equally on all sides in fruit; teeth setaceous, recurved.
Fruit:- Legume included, 1- to 4-seeded.
Sect. TRICHOCEPHALUM
Flowers:- Heads capitate; flowers sessile, ebracteate, the outer fertile, the inner consisting only of sterile.
Sect. VESICASTRUM
Flowers:- Bracts free or united into a small involucre. Flowers subsessile. Calyx inflated in fruit, upper lip externally densely hairy (rarely glabrous), scarious and reticulately veined, its two teeth often setaceous.
Sect. CRYPTOSCIADIUM
General description:- Perennial.
Flowers:- Heads axillary, 1- to 3(-5)-flowered; peduncles usually very short and covered by the imbricate stipules. Pedicels evident, curved in fruit. Calyx cylindrical, 10-veined.
Fruit:- Legume 3- to 10-seeded.
TRIGONELLA
General description:- Annual.
Leaves:- Pinnately 3-foliolate; leaflets usually toothed.
Flowers:- solitary or in sessile or pedunculate axillary heads or short racemes. Calyx-teeth equal or unequal; corolla yellow, blue or purplish, free from the staminal tube, deciduous; stamens diadelphous or monadelphous; filaments not dilated. Legume usually linear or oblong, straight or curved, indehiscent or dehiscing along one suture.
Fruit:- Seeds 1-many.
Key features:-
1) Annual or biennial.
2) Corolla blue, white or yellow.
3) Legume linear or oblong, at least 3 times as long as wide.
4) Legume with a long, curved beak or with a broad membranous wing on the margin.
Subgen. TRIGONELLA
Flower:- Calyx usually campanulate.
Fruit:- Legume not inflated.
ANTHYLLIS - TRIPODION
General description:- Shrubs or herbs.
Leaves:- Usually unevenly pinnate (imparipinnate), rarely simple or 3-foliolate. Stipules small, falling early (caducous).
Flowers:- Usually in dense heads, rarely in fascicles or borne singly in the bract-axils. Calyx tubular, bell-shaped (campanulate) or constricted near the apex, with equal or unequal teeth; corolla variously coloured; stamens in one bundle and united by the filaments (monadelphous), or the upper stamen free for up to ½ its length.
Measurements of the calyx given are at anthesis and include the teeth unless specifically excluded.
Fruit:- Legume sessile or stipitate, frequently indehiscent or tardily dehiscent, usually completely included within the persistent calyx. Seeds 1-many.
Key features:-
1) Upper part of calyx not breaking away at anthesis.
2) Calyx with 5 ± equal teeth, shorter than tube; not or only slightly bilabiate.
3) Calyx ± tubular; not split to the base.
4) Stamens variously connate.
5) Calyx inflated, 4·5-6 mm wide in flower, up to 12 mm wide in fruit and enclosing the legume.
6) Stipules free, often minute or absent.
7) Legume ± included in the persistent calyx.
8) Flowers solitary or in clusters of 2-3.
9) Corolla yellow.
VICIA
General description:- Annual or perennial herbs, often climbing by means of tendrils.
Leaves:- Terminated by a pair of opposite leaflets (paripinnate), usually with a tendril, very rarely imparipinnate; stipules usually small, herbaceous.
Flowers:- Solitary, axillary or in axillary fascicles or racemes. Calyx actinomorphic to bilabiate; keel obtuse; stamens in two bundles and united by the filaments (diadelphous); style pubescent all round or on the lower side, or glabrous.
Fruit:- Legume, more or less oblong, compressed, dehiscent. Seeds usually 2 or more.
Key features:-
1) Calyx-teeth not leaf-like.
2) Style pubescent all round or on the lower side, or glabrous.
3) Stipules not more than 2 cm.
Sect. CRACCA
Leaves:- Leaflets usually numerous (more than 5 pairs).
Flowers:- Usually numerous in long-stemmed (pedunculate) racemes; calyx bilabiate, somewhat pouch-like (gibbous) at base; corolla usually large (more than 10 mm); style equally pubescent all round.
V. CRACCA Group
General description:- Perennial up to 200 cm.
Leaves:- Leaflets 5-20 pairs; stipules entire.
Flowers:- Racemes 8- to 40-flowered. Calyx-teeth unequal; corolla purple, violet or blue; limb of the standard equalling or longer than claw.
Fruit:- Legume brown, glabrous. Seeds 4-8.
Sect. ERVUM
Leaves:- Leaflets usually numerous (more than 4 pairs);
Flowers:- few, in long-pedunculate racemes; calyx not gibbous at base; corolla usually less than 10 mm; style glabrous or equally pubescent all round.
Sect. FABA
Leaves:- Leaflets 1-3 pairs.
Flowers:- Solitary, axillary or in few-flowered, stemless or almost so (sessile or shortly pedunculate) racemes; corolla large (more than 10 mm); style pubescent on the lower side beneath the stigma
Several species in this genus are important fodder plants.
Sect. VICIA
Leaves:- Leaflets usually more than 3 pairs.
Flowers:- Solitary, axillary or in few-flowered, stemless or almost so (sessile or shortly pedunculate) racemes; corolla usually large (more than 10 mm); style pubescent on the lower side beneath the stigma.