Humularia P.A. Duvign.

Erect or prostrate subshrubs or less often small shrubs. Leaves pinnately 2–12-foliolate, the leaflets asymmetrical at the base, often with one part cuneiform and the other rounded or half-cordate; stipules rounded, cordate or unequally auriculate at the base, often similar in size to the leaves, persistent or deciduous; stipels absent. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, in subcylindric bracteate racemes, generally dense and scorpioid, less often lax and zigzag; bracts big, distichous, bilobed, densely imbricate, sometimes ± hiding the flowers and completely hiding the fruits, mostly membranous and coloured; bracteoles membranous, persistent. Calyx 2-lipped, the lips almost free, the upper ± bifid, the lower trifid; corolla small or medium-sized, yellow, orange or reddish, often lined with red. Standard narrowed into a claw; wings spathulate, united by their basal appendages; keel-petals obovate, very shortly joined near the apex, narrowed into a claw. Ovary stipitate, 2-ovuled. Fruit pods somewhat woody, often beaked by the persistent style-base. Seeds rounded-reniform, smooth.

Worldwide: 40 species in Africa.

Malawi: 5 taxa.