Duration: Annual

Nativity: Non-Native

Lifeform: Vine

General: Annual or perennial, to 2 m long, erect to semi-erect or strongly twining to trailing herbaceous plant.

Leaves: Ovate-oblong to elliptic 5-12 cm long, acute or acuminate and mucronate, about 3 cm wide, generally leathery.

Flowers: Large, papilionaceous, purple, 3-6 cm long, in pendulous axillary racemes 20-35 cm long.

Fruits: Pods 20-30 cm long, 3-4 cm wide, slightly curved, ridges moderately marked with sides usually plane, seeds 10-14, about 3 cm long, 2 cm wide, compressed but plump and white.

Ecology: Uncertain as to its precise distribution in Arizona, but clearly a plant of disturbed areas where escaped or cultivated.

Notes: The seeds of this plant would help to clarify, as would the large leathery leaves.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Canavalia is unclear, but cana means gray or hoary, while ensiformis means having a sword-shaped form.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010