Canavalia
-
Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro. 2005. Vines and climbing plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 51: 1-483.
-
Family
Fabaceae
-
Scientific Name
-
Description
Description - Woody or herbaceous vines, twining or creeping. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate; stipels absent; stipules minute, deciduous. Inflorescences of axillary or terminal pseudoracemes; the flowers clustered on the nodal swellings of the rachis; bracts minute, in pairs; pedicels short. Calyx campanulate, the lobes 5, unequal, 2 larger; corolla pink, violet, or purple, the standard obovate, unguiculate, auriculate and thickened at the base, the wings and the keel of similar size; stamens 10, the filaments united into a long tube; ovary superior, sessile or stipitate, pubescent, with numerous ovules, the style filiform, the stigma capitate. Fruit an elongate legume, flattened or slightly inflated, dehiscent or indehiscent, not septate between the seeds, with a longitudinal keel along both sutures or along the ventral suture; seeds 3 or more, usually oblong. A genus of 50 species, the great majority native to the New World.