Small Bead Bean

triphylla: with 3 leaflets

Usually a much-branched scrambling shrub but occasionally a small tree. Leaves 3-foliolate with elliptic leaflets, the terminal leaflet about twice the size of the lateral leaflets; apex rounded or often notched. Flowers in short terminal or axillary heads; sepals green; petals white; stamens 12-16 (fewer than other species of Maerua), c. 2 cm long. Fruit bean-like, cylindric, up to 10 cm, somewhat constricted between the seeds.