Citation: Benth. in T.L. Mitchell, J. Trop. Austral. 350 (1848).

Synonymy: V. lanceolata Benth. var. latifolia C. White, Qld. Agric. J. 10:41 (1918).

Common name: Maloga bean, native bean, yam.

Description:
Perennial herb, branches short and erect or elongated and twining, sparsely pubescent; tap root long, tuberous, edible; some stems setting flowers and pods underground; leaves trifoliolate, on petioles 2-5 cm long, covered with stiff appressed basally glandular hairs; leaflets broad- to narrow-ovate, occasionally lanceolate, cuneate or hastate at the base; lateral leaflets smaller, on petiolules c. 1 mm long, terminal one 20-60 x 6-36 mm, on a petiolule 3-20 mm long; stipules lanceolate, spurred, c. 3 mm long, seated above a gland; stipels lanceolate-filiform, c. 1.5 ram, 1 at lateral, 2 at terminal leaflets.

Flower 7-10 mm long, few in a cluster towards the summit of the erect 4-20 cm long peduncle; each cluster rising from a gland-like node; bract ovate-lanceolate, to 1 mm long, scarious; bracteoles at the base of the calyx, lanceolate, c. 1 mm long, fleshy; calyx campanulate, c. 3.5 mm long, the upper 2 teeth united in a broad triangular notched lip; lower 3 triangular-lanceolate, equal to or shorter than the tube, sprinkled with stiff hairs mostly towards the tips; standard broad-ovate, notched, wider than long, with 2 calli and 2 inflexed auricles at the base of the lamina, obliquely veined; wings obovate, slightly auriculate; keel equalling the wings and standard, semicircular, acute, beaked, rather incurved, with callus-like pouches; ovary sessile, fusiform, pubescent, with several ovules; style long, slender, bearded half-way on the inner edge, with a broad oblique stigma.

Pod subcylindrical, 20-45 x 4-6. mm, slightly falcate, acute, somewhat turgid, dehiscing spirally; seed ovate-reniform, not seen.

Image source: fig. 318B in J.P. Jessop and H.R. Toelken Ed. 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 430.

Distribution:  mainly in dry watercourses or in sand plains with Triodia.   W.Aust.; N.T.; Qld; N.S.W.;. Conservation status: native Flowering time: all the year round.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: The tap root, usually 30-40 cm long, is called "yam" and is eaten.

Author: Not yet available