Shrub, woody at base, to 3 m tall; stems minutely sericeous, 3-ridged from the nodes. Leaves trifoliolate; stipules lanceolate, 2.5-3 mm long; petioles 1-4 cm long; rachis 5-15 mm long; leaflets narrowly elliptic, acute or slightly acuminate at apex, cuneate at base, softly puberulent and grayish-green above, glandular-dotted, tomentose, and pale below, the terminal leaflet 5-10 cm long, 2-3.5 cm wide, the veins at base 3. Racemes terminal or upper-axillary, 2-6 cm long, the flowers often paired at the nodes; pedicels 5-10 mm long; calyx bilabiate, to 8 mm long, lobed half its length, the lobes acute to acuminate, the upper 2 +/- united along their common side; petals to 2 cm long, yellow, the standard often red to maroon outside. Legumes oblong, 5-10 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide, puberulent, strongly beaked, yellowish-green with brown-striped mottling, with oblique constrictions between the seeds on the side of the legume, the calyx persisting at base; seeds 2-5, flattened, ca 7 mm diam, gray, the hilum prominent. Croat 7238. Probably native to the East Indies; introduced sporadically in the New World tropics. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, Coclé, Panama, and Darien.