Taverniera
(named in honour of J. B. Tavernier, 1605-89, a celebrated traveller in the Levant). ORD. Leguminosae. A small genus (seven species have been described as such, but the number may be reduced to three or four) of greenhouse, canescent or glabrous under-shrubs, natives of the East Indies and the Orient. Flowers pink or White, few in axillary, pedunculate racemes; calyx teeth sub-equal, or the two upper ones more remote; standard broadly orbicular, narrowed at base, scarcely clawed; bracts minute or caducous. Pods flattened, indehiscent. Leaves few, one-foliolate or pinnately trifoliolate; leaflets often obovate or orbicular; stipules scarious. Two species have been introduced. For culture, see Desmodium.
T. lappacea (Burdock-podded). fl. yellow, one or two together, axillary, on short pedicels. July and August. fr., pods beset with stiff bristles, which are hooked at the apex. l. trifoliolate; leaflets fleshy, obcordate, villous. Stems procumbent, branched, divaricate, terete. Arabia Felix, 1820. T. nummularia (Moneywort). East Indian Moneywort. fl. red, glabrous, 3/8in. to 1/2in. long; racemes few or many-flowered, usually exceeding the leaves, June and July. l. shortly petiolate, usually trifoliate; leaflets 1/4in. to 1in. long, obovate-oblong or nearly round, thick, thinly canescent beneath; stipules free. Branches copious. h. 1ft. to 2ft. India, Afghanistan, Orient, 1826.