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: WILD PEA
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, unarmed, glabrous or hairy (glandular), generally rhizomed. Stem: sprawling, climbing, or erect; angled, flanged, or winged. Leaf: generally even-1-pinnate; stipules persistent, upper lobe > lower; main axis ending as tendril or short bristle; leaflets +- rolled in bud, 0--16 (if 0, stipules leaflet-like), +- opposite or alternate, linear to widely ovate. Inflorescence: raceme, generally axillary, 1--many-flowered. Flower: upper calyx lobes generally <, wider than lower; corolla 8--30 mm, pink-purple or pale, occasionally white or yellow; 9 filaments fused, 1 free; style +- flat, puberulent near +- middle for +- 1/3--1/2 adaxially. Fruit: dehiscent, oblong, +- flat.
Etymology: (Ancient Greek name) Toxicity: Seeds of most alien species. TOXIC to humans, livestock (especially horses). Note: Some species variable, intergrading with others; some hybridization probable. Lathyrus aphaca L. (leaflets 0, stipules leaflet-like) not naturalized in California.
eFlora Treatment Author: Kelly Steele & Duane Isely
Reference: Broich 2007 Madroño 54:63--71
Unabridged Reference: Broich 1987 Syst Bot 12:139--153; Broich 2007 Madroño 54:63--71; Kenicer et al. 2005 Amer J Bot 92: 1199--1209.