Common Name: LEGUME FAMILY
Habit: Annual to tree. Leaf: generally alternate, generally compound, generally stipuled, generally entire, pinnately veined Inflorescence: generally raceme, spike, umbel or head; or flowers 1--few in axils. Flower: generally bisexual, generally bilateral; hypanthium 0 or flat to tubular; sepals generally 5, generally fused; petals generally 5, free, fused, or lower 2 +- united into keel (see 3, Key to Groups, for banner, wings); stamens 10 or many (or [1], 5, 6, 7, 9), free or fused or 10 with 9 filaments at least partly fused, 1 (uppermost) free; pistil 1, ovary superior, generally 1-chambered, ovules 1--many, style, stigma 1. Fruit: legume, including a stalk-like base (above receptacle) or not. Seed: 1--many, often +- reniform, generally hard, smooth.
Genera In Family: +- 730 genera, 19400 species: worldwide; with grasses, requisite in agriculture, most natural ecosystems. Many cultivated, most importantly Arachis, peanut; Glycine, soybean; Phaseolus, beans; Medicago, alfalfa; Trifolium, clovers; many orns. Note: Unless stated otherwise, fruit length including stalk-like base, number of 2° leaflets is per 1° leaflet. Upper suture of fruit adaxial, lower abaxial. Anthyllis vulneraria L. evidently a waif, a contaminant of legume seed from Europe. Laburnum anagyroides Medik., collected on Mount St. Helena in 1987, may be naturalized. Ceratonia siliqua L., carob tree (Group 2), differs from Gleditsia triacanthos L. in having evergreen (vs deciduous) leaves that are 1-pinnate (vs 1-pinnate on spurs on old stems, 2-pinnate on new stems) with 2--5(8) (vs 7--17) 1° leaflets, commonly cultivated, now naturalized in southern California. Aeschynomene rudis Benth. , Halimodendron halodendron (Pall.) Voss (possibly extirpated), Lens culinaris Medik. are agricultural weeds. Caragana arborescens Lam. only cult. Ononis alopecuroides L. , Sphaerophysa salsula (Pall.) DC. all evidently extirpated. Cercidium moved to Parkinsonia; Chamaecytisus to Cytisus; Psoralidium lanceolatum to Ladeania.
eFlora Treatment Author: Martin F. Wojciechowski, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Martin F. Wojciechowski, Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: DEERVETCH, DEERWEED
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, shrub, unarmed. Leaf: generally odd-1-pinnate (or +- palmately compound, rarely some or most simple); stipules often gland-like, bump-like, or conic, often not apparent; leaflets 3--9, generally irregularly arranged, lowest not stipular in position. Inflorescence: umbel or 1--2-flowered, axillary, generally peduncled, often bracted. Flower: corolla generally yellow (white, pink), fading darker; 9 filaments fused, 1 free. Fruit: dehiscent or not, exserted from calyx or not, ovoid to oblong, +- beaked. Seed: 1--several.
Etymology: (Greek acme, point, apex, probably for the hooked-tipped fruit) Note: Intermediates may be hybrids.
Unabridged Note: Pollen has 4(7) apertures.
eFlora Treatment Author: Luc Brouillet
Reference: Brouillet 2008 J Bot Res Inst Texas 2:387--394
Unabridged Reference: Isely 1981 Mem New York Bot Gard 25:128--206; Sokoloff 2000 Ann Bot Fenn 37:125--131

Habit: Perennial herb, shrub, sparsely or densely strigose or +- silky, green or gray. Stem: decumbent to ascending, 5--20 dm. Leaf: irregularly pinnate; stipules gland-like; leaflets 7--15 mm, elliptic to obovate. Inflorescence: 3--10-flowered, peduncle 0 or 2--10 mm. Flower: calyx 4--6 mm, lobes < tube, thinly strigose to +- glabrous; corolla 8--12 mm, yellow, wings +- = keel, stigma glabrous. Fruit: indehiscent, divergent to descending, soon-exserted, oblong-tapering, straight or curved, not flat; beak narrow, abruptly curved, 2--3 mm. Chromosomes: 2n=14.
Note: Island-to-island variants recognized variously; the following distinct in morphology, geography.