Annual or perennial herbs, rarely shrubs or small trees, sometimes armed. Lvs usually pinnately 3-foliolate, rarely 1-foliolate or very rarely with 2-5 pairs of leaflets; principal lateral veins thin and straight, terminating at leaflet margin in a tooth; stipules adnate to petiole. Fls solitary or 2-3 in axillary racemes; bracts minute or 0 but floral lvs sometimes reduced to bracts. Calyx teeth 5. Stamens connate in a closed tube or rarely vexillary stamen free; alternate anthers versatile, remainder basifixed. Style glabrous; stigma terminal, subcapitate. Pod 2-valved, straight, dehiscent, not armed, 1-many-seeded; seeds estrophiolate, smooth or tuberculate.