Dolichos phaseoloides Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., ed. 1832, 3: 316. 1832; Neustanthus phaseoloides (Roxburgh) Bentham.

Herbaceous vines. Stem slender, 2-4 m, brownish hirsute. Stipules basifixed, ovate-lanceolate, 3-5 mm; stipels linear, 2-3 mm; leaflets broadly ovate, rhomboid, or ovate-rhomboid, ter­minal one broader, 6-10 × 4.5-9 cm, lateral ones smaller, oblique, entire or 3-lobed, abaxially densely white hirsute, adax­ially adpressed hirsute. Racemes solitary, 8-15 cm or more. Bracts and bracteoles linear-lanceolate, 3-4 mm, hirsute. Flow­ers with short pedicels, clustered at slightly distant nodes. Calyx ca. 6 mm, pilose; lower tooth as long as tube, apex hirsute, others deltoid, shorter than tube. Corolla bluish or lilac; stan­dard suborbicular, 8-12 mm, base with 2 incurved auricles; wings obovate-oblong, slightly longer than keel, one side of base with rounded auricle, claw slender; keel falcate, apex with short beak, base truncate, clawed. Ovary linear, thinly hairy. Legumes subcylindric, 5-8 cm × ca. 4 mm, first adpressed hir­sute, later subglabrous. Seeds 15-20, oblong-elliptic, subtrun­cate at both ends, ca. 4 mm. Fl. Aug-Sep, fr. Oct-Nov.

This species is used as a cover plant, forage, and green manure.

Thickets of mountainous and hilly areas. Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Malaysia (Peninsular), Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam; widely cultivated elsewhere in the tropics].