Climbing shrubs, usually armed with prickles on stem and leaves. Leaves bipinnate; leaflets opposite; stipules very small, caducous. Flowers in terminal and axillary racemes or panicles; bracts inconspicuous; conspicuous hypanthium; sepals 5, imbricate, the lower curving upwards over the others; petals 5, subequal or the upper one somewhat modified. Ovary sessile or shortly stipitate. Fruit pods oblong-ellipsoid, thickened along the upper margin, or flat with a broad longitudinal wing along the upper margin, indehiscent, 1–9-seeded. Seeds compressed, without endosperm.
Worldwide: Five species in tropical Africa.
Caprivi: 1 cultivated taxon. |
|