[Phaseolus lathy roides L.; P. semierectus L.]
(nat) Wild bean, cow pea
Erect annual or biennial herbs 0.6-1.5 m tall, sometimes trailing or twining; stems appressed pubescent. Leaflets narrowly elliptic to narrowly ovate, 3-8 cm long, 1-3.5 cm wide, lower surface sparsely pilose at maturity, petioles 1-5 cm long, stipules lanceolate, 5-6 mm long. Flowers subsessile, ca. 15 mm long, in pseudoracemes up to 50 cm long; standard maroon to purple, wing and keel petals tinged green, red, or white. Pods 5.5-10 cm long, 2.5-3.5 mm wide, appressed pilose, the valves becoming strongly twisted. Seeds 18-30, brown or marbled brown and black, obliquely oblong, ca. 3.5 mm long, ca. 3 mm wide, pitted. [2n = 22.] Native to the Neotropics; in Hawai‘i introduced as a fodder plant, natu-ralized in pastures, along roadsides, and in other disturbed areas, 0-610 m, probably on all of the main islands, but not documented from Molokai. First collected on 0‘ahu in 1864-1865 (Mann & Brigham 47, BISH).—Plate 92.