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: GOLDEN PEA, FALSE-LUPINE
Habit: Perennial herb, unarmed, generally hairy, rhizomed. Stem: erect; lower nodes leafless. Leaf: palmately compound; lower stipules clasping stem, scarious, others not clasping stem, green; leaflets 3, widely ovate to oblanceolate. Inflorescence: raceme, terminal; bracts like stipules, +- persistent. Flower: calyx lobes 5, upper 2 +- fused; corolla yellow; stamens 10, free. Fruit: erect or spreading, slowly dehiscent, oblong, flat; base stalk-like base present; margin often wavy. Seed: 3--10.
Species In Genus: +- 20 species: temperate North America, central and eastern Asia. Etymology: (Greek: like a lupine)
eFlora Treatment Author: Dieter H. Wilken
Reference: Chen et al. 1994 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 81:714--742

Habit: Plant 3--8 dm. Stem: ascending to erect, slender, branches irregular. Leaf: leaflets generally 3--7 cm, hairy, lateral veins 12--18. Inflorescence: 7--30 cm; pedicels 2--6 mm; flowers 2--5 per node. Fruit: straight, generally ascending, generally densely hairy.