Botany
A climbing or trailing vine, 4 to 6 m long, with a smooth, usually purple stem. Leaves are long stalkd, with 3 inequilateral leaflets, each about 4 to 10 cm long. Flowers are in clusters, white to purple in color, along an erect inflorescence stalk. The pods are purple-margined, flat, and elongated with a prominent beak, about 7.5 cm long and 2.5 cm wide.

Properties
Emmenagogue (flowers); tonic and carminative (boiled ripe seeds); febrifuge, stomachic, antispasmodic.

Propagation
Propagation by seeds. Cultivated for market produce. Pods are harvested about 4 months after planting.

Parts used and preparation
Bean, root.

Uses:
Folkloric
A poultice of the leaves mixed with rice-flowers and tumeric used for eczema.
Poultice of leaves for snake bites.
Infusion of leaves for colic.
Juice of the leaves mixed with lime, applied to tumors and abscesses.
Nutritional
Tender pods, seeds and young leaves used as vegetable.
Young leaves and pods are good sources of calcium, iron, vitaminn C, and other minerals.

Availability
Cultivated for market produce.
Wildcrafted