Zombi pea

Vigna vexillata, the zombi pea or wild cowpea, is a perennial herbaceous trailing or twining vine in the Fabaceae with a remarkably wide pantropical distribution across Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas, occurring in grasslands, savannas, open woodland and disturbed ground. The plant arises from a stout, fleshy, sometimes carrot-like tuberous root and produces slender, ribbed, often hairy stems 1 to 3 metres long that climb over surrounding vegetation. The alternate, long-petiolate leaves are trifoliolate with ovate to lanceolate, entire to slightly lobed leaflets 3 to 10 centimetres long, sparsely pubescent and conspicuously stipulate. Showy pea-shaped flowers 2 to 3 centimetres across are borne singly or in pairs at the tips of long axillary peduncles; the standard petal is pink, mauve or purple, often with a darker centre, and the keel is sometimes spirally twisted. The fruit is a linear-cylindrical pod 4 to 14 centimetres long, brownish and hairy when mature, splitting elastically to release several small mottled seeds.