Lentils scientific name: Lablab purpureus Linn. Sweet, the common name of Dolichos lablab, perennial, twining vine. The whole plant is glabrous, stems 6 meters long, often pale purple. Pinnately compound leaves with 3 leaflets; stipules base and lanceolate; stipules linear; leaflets broadly triangular ovate, long 6-10 cm, width and appearance, lateral leaflets unequal, large, oblique, apex sharp or acuminate, base nearly flat. Racemes erect; bracteoles suborbicular; 2, take 2 to many clusters in each section; calyx campanulate, ca. 6 mm, above 2 teeth several completely connate, 3 subequally below; corolla white or purple, upper petal orbicular, base on both sides with a small appendage 2 long erect the 2 ear appendage, petals broadly obovate, with truncate ears, keel is right angle bend, base tapering into flap handle; ovary linear, glabrous, style longer than ovary, not more than 90 degrees bend, flat side, near the top edge of the coat. Sickle pod oblong, 5-7 cm long, near the top of the wide, straight or slightly curved back, with a curved beak tip, base tapering; seeds 3-5, flat, long oval, white in white varieties, varieties of Alfalfa in purple black, hilum linear, long about seed around 2/5. Flowering 4-12 months.
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