Dolichos Lablab

Dolichos lablab

Summer-growing, rampant and vigorously twining herbaceous annual or short-lived perennial. Stems robust, 3 to 6 m, leaves trifoliate; leaflets broad ovate-rhomboid, 7.5 to 15 cm long, thin, acute at apex, almost smooth above and short-haired underneath. Petioles long and slender. Inflorescence lax, fascicled, of many-flowered racemes on elongated peduncles. Flowers white or blue or purple, on short pedicels. Pod 4 to 5 cm long, broadly scimitar shaped, smooth and beaked by the persistent style, containing two to four seeds. Seeds in 'Rongai' buff or pale brown coloured, ovoid, laterally compressed, with a linear white conspicuous hilum, 1.0 cm long x 0.7 cm broad.