Edible Portion: Seeds, Vegetable
An erect annual herb. It grows to 1.5 m tall. It has a thick taproot. It can keep growing from year to year. The stems are branched, woody and mostly without hairs. The leaves have leaflets arranged like fingers on a hand. There are 7-9 leaflets. These are oblong and about 6 cm long by 1.4 cm wide. They are hairy underneath. The flowers are large and have a smell. They are about 2 cm long. The standard is white and blue with a yellow mark in the centre. Many flowers (50-70%) fall off without forming pods. The fruit is a pod. It is finely hairy and does not split open before falling in cultivated varieties. The pods are oblong but pointed at both ends. There can be 130 pods on a plant. The seeds bulge towards the centre. They are 8-10 mm long and 6-8 mm wide. The colour can vary from black to light grey.