Family: FabaceaeLocal name (Telugu): DoolagondiDistribution: Occasional among hedges and bushes, found in tropics.Extensive climbing herbs, branches pubescent, Leaves 3 foliate, petioles 10-15cm long, lateral ones ovate, terminal one rhomboid; Flowers 3-4 cm long, dark purple in 10-15 cm long axillary racemes, bracts deciduous, bracteoles small, calyx tube widely companulate, the lowest long, corolla much exerted, standard about half the length of wings and keel, stamens 10, didelphous, anthers dimorphous, ovary sessile, villous, Pods falcate, curved at both ends, S shaped, densly clothed with irritant brown bristles.Seeds have high repute in Ayurvedic medicine;
The flowers of wild Mucuna pruriens in Macossa district of Mozambique. Extremely itchy hairs are produced on the ripe pods and this is why this weed is named "feijo maluco" (crazy bean) or "feijo macaco" (monkey bean). The beans are sometimes consumed (after extremely time-consuming preparation to remove the poison) in times of food scarcity.