Description from
Flora of China
Millettia dunnii Merrill; M. fooningensis Hu; M. taiwaniana (Hayata) Hayata; Pongamia taiwaniana Hayata; Whitfordiodendron taiwaniana (Hayata) Ohwi.
Lianas, to 15 m. Branchlets brown, yellow tomentose when young, glabrescent, scattered with brown lenticels. Leaves 13-17-foliolate; rachis 30-50 cm, including petiole 7-9 cm; leaflet blades elliptic-oblong to lanceolate-oblong, 10-18 × 3.5-4.5 cm, papery, abaxially brown appressed sericeous, adaxially flat and glabrous, base cuneate to rounded, apex acute. Pseudoracemes with 2-6 branches beneath new stems, 15-30 cm, brown tomentose; rachis nodes with 2-5 flowers clustered on a 1-3 mm spur. Pedicel 6-8 mm. Flowers 2.1-2.3 cm. Calyx ca. 6 mm. Corolla lilac; standard obovate, glabrous or ciliate on apical margin, without basal calluses. Ovary tomentose, with 5-7 ovules. Legume dark brown, oblong or when 1-seeded ovoid, 5-25 × ca. 4 cm, inflated, densely covered with pale yellow warts, glabrescent; valves thick, woody. Seeds 1-5 per legume, dark brown, reniform, 2.5-3.5 × ca. 2 cm. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jul-Nov. 2n = 22.
The seeds and roots are ground into a powder that is used as an insecticide. The bark fiber is used for making rough ropes.
Evergreen broad-leaved forests in valleys; 100-2000 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, SW Hubei, Hunan, S Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, SW Xizang, Yunnan, S Zhejiang [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].
