Dolichos lablab

General Description:

Dolichos lablab a perennial, twining or creeping herb generally cultivated as an annual. Most of the varieties have a twining habit; a few are bushy, prostrate or semi-erect. The plant can attain a height of 30ft. Leaves are trifoliate. Leaflets broad ovate-rhomboid, 7.5-15 cm long, thin, acute at ape, almost smooth above and short haired underneath.  Petioles are long and slender.  Inflorescence lax, fascicled, of many-flowered racemes on elongated peduncles.Flowers white, reddish or purple, borne on axillary racemes, on short pedicels. Pods flat or inflated, linear or broad, 1-5 in. long, in curved iwht remains of persistent style. Sedds (seeds are) globose, ovate or flattened varying in colour from white to dark black. Seeds have a linear white conspicuous hilum, 1.0 cm long x 0.7 cm broad, seeds of 'Highworth' black with a linear white hilum .  Seeds can have a mottled colouring in some domesticated varieties and in all wild material. The plant is drought resistant.