Edible portion : Leaves, Leaves - flavouring, Seeds - coffee, Seeds, Vegetable
An annual or perennial herb. Often it has a bad smell. It can be a shrub 0.6-2.5 m tall. It has slightly hairy stems. The leaf stalk does not have a gland but the axis of the leaf does. The leaf has leaflets in 3 pairs. They are oval and 1-6 cm long by 0.5-3.9 cm wide. The top of the leaf is rounded but with a sharp tip. It is wedge shaped at the base. The flower stalks have one or 2 flowers. The stalk for the flower cluster is very short, but the stalk for the individual flowers is 1-3.5 cm long. The flower petals are orange-yellow and 1-2 cm long. The fruits are thin slightly curved and tapering pods. They are 13-23 cm long and 4-7 mm wide. The seeds are brown. They are 4.5-6.5 cm long by 2-4 mm wide.
A tropical plant. It grows throughout the tropics. It is mostly a weed of roadsides and waste places. It grows from sea level to 2,000 m altitude. In Papua New Guinea it grows at about 80 m altitude. It grows along rivers and near lakes. In Africa it grows up to 1,700 m altitude. It can grow in arid places.