Plants annual or pereenial herbs or shrubs. Leaves usually odd-pinnate, less ofter simple or with 1 leaflet, rarely palmate; leaflets usually with closely parallel lateral veins. Flowers usually in upper leaf axils or in pseudoracemes. Calyces with the upper 2 teeth often more or less united; corollas usually reddish purple; banner petals pubescent on the outside; stamens most united by their filaments, 1 stamen free or only lightly atttached to the others; disk usually present between the stamens and the ovaries. Pods linear or oblong, more or less flattened, thinly coriaceous, dehiscing, often explosively, the valves becoming twisted; seeds 1-many.
Tephrosia is a large genus, present through the tropics and in many warm temperate regions.
Note: GBIF records include introduced and cultivated plants. Consequently, the distribution shown often differs from statements about a taxon's native distribution.
