LEGUMINOSAE 259 



51. MUCUNA Adanson 



Annual or perennial, usually coarse vines. Leaves 3-foliolate, the leaflets 

 ample, stipellate. Flowers racemose, large, showy, dark-purple or pale- 

 greenish. Calyx-tube campanulate, the 2 upper teeth quite connate, the 

 lowest longer than the middle ones. Corolla much exserted; standard 

 not more than one-half as long , as the beaked keel, the wings usually a 

 littl^ longer than the keel. Stamens diadelphous; anthers dimorphous. 

 Pod linear to oblong, compressed, smooth or transversely ridged, keeled 

 along the sutures or not, softly pubescent or often covered with very irri- 

 tating, brown, bristle-like hairs. (A Brazilian name.) 



Species 26 or more in all tropical countries, about 10 in the Philippines. 



Pods covered with stiff, brown> stinging hairs 1. M. pruriens 



Pods velvety-pubescent, no stinging hairs 2, M. 



1. M. pruriens (L.) DC. Lipai, Nipai (Tag.). 



A climbing or spreading annual vine reaching a length of several meters, 

 more or less pubescent. Leaves thin, ovate to oblong-ovate, rounded or 

 subacute, apiculate, 6 to 12 cm long, the lateral ones oblique. Racemes 

 pendulous, many-flowered, 10 to 25 cm long. Calyx gray-pubescent and 

 with intermixed, brown, stinging hairs. Corolla dark-purple, almost black, 

 4 cm long. ,Pod stout, compressed, slightly curved near the apex, 6 to 11 

 cm lojng, 2 cm wide, densely covered with stiff, somewhat appressed, 

 brown, very irritating stinging hairs. (Fl. Pilip. pi. SSI, M. hirsuta.) 



In thickets etc., occasional near Fort McKinley, fl. Sept.-March; widely 

 .distributed in the Philippines. India to Malaya, introduced in tropical 

 America. 



*2. M. lyonii Merr. 



A stout, herbaceous, twining vine reaching a length of 4 m or more. 

 Leaflets thin, broadly ovate, the lateral ones oblique, 5 to 18 cm long, 

 slightly hairy beneath. Racemes up to 40. cm in length. Flowers numer- 

 ous, about 4 cm long, the calyx grayish-pubescent, the corolla dark-purple. 

 Pods 6 to 10 cm long, 1.6 to 1.8 cm wide, the valves with 2 longitudinal 

 ribs, rather velvety-pubescent with short gray hairs, and with no stinging 

 hairs. 



Cultivated, Singalon, fl. May-July, and probably in other months; 

 widely distributed in the Philippines in cultivation. This has been reduced 

 to the Indo-Malayan M. nivea W. & A., but that species has greenish-white 

 flowers. 



52. GALACTIA P. Browne 



Slender, twining, herbaceous vines with 3-foliolate leaves, the leaflets 

 stipellate. Flowers racemose, small, the nodes of the inflorescence usually 

 enlarged. Calyx tube short, the teeth narrow, the upper 2 fused in one. 

 Corolla little exserted, the petals nearly equal in length; keel obtuse; 

 nearly straight. Stamens diadelphous. Ovary many-ovuled; style slender. 

 Pod linear, flattened. (From the Greek "milk," some species formerly 

 thought to yield milky sap.) 



Species about 46, mostly in tropical America, 1 in the Philippines. 



1. G. tenuiflora (Klein) W. & A. 



A slender, pubescent, twining, annual vine reaching a length of 2 to 3 

 m. Leaflets thin, oblong to elliptic-oblong, rounded at the apex, 2 to 3.^ 



