Changes

The tuberous roots of ''Vatovaea pseudolablab'' are fibrous and contain much juice; they have a pleasant, sweet taste even when eaten raw.

Liana or shrub up to 1.5(–3) m tall; stem branched, glabrous to sparsely pubescent; roots tuberous. Leaves alternate, 3-foliolate; stipules oblong, c. 3.5 mm × 1.5 mm; petiole up to 6 cm long, ribbed, rachis up to 2 cm long; stipels small; petiolules 1–2 mm long; leaflets ovate to narrowly ovate-rhomboid, up to 8 cm × 6.5 cm, sometimes slightly 3-lobed, glabrous to sparsely pubescent. Inflorescence an axillary false raceme up to 50 cm long, pubescent, many-flowered; peduncle 6–21 cm long; bracts up to 2 mm long. Flowers bisexual, papilionaceous; pedicel c. 3 mm long; calyx c. 5 mm long, 5-lobed, 2-lipped, the lower 3 lobes rounded-triangular, the upper 2 lobes united; corolla greenish purple, standard 1–2 cm × 1.5–2 cm, emarginate, with 2 appendages near the base, wings with a long narrow spur, keel incurved; stamens 10, 9 fused and 1 free; ovary superior, linear, 1-celled, style long, incurved, usually hairy inside towards the apex and with a reflexed appendage above the stigma. Fruit a linear-oblong pod 4.5–6 cm × 0. 5–1 cm, curved, flattened, widening towards the apex, dehiscent, at first silky pubescent, later glabrescent, up to 8-seeded. Seeds almost globose to irregularly ellipsoid or squarish, 4.5–7 mm × 4.5–6.5 mm × 2.5–3 mm, brown, sometimes speckled with black.