Indian-licorice

Abrus precatorius, the rosary pea or jequirity bean, is a slender perennial woody climber of the Fabaceae native to tropical Asia and now pantropical, with stems twining 3-6 m or more over shrubs and trees and arising from a deep, often tuberous rootstock. The pinnate leaves are 5-13 cm long with 8-17 pairs of small, oblong leaflets 6-25 mm long, glabrous above and sparsely appressed-hairy beneath, with a leaflet-less rachis tip. The pea-flowers are small, 8-12 mm long, pale pink to mauve or purplish-white, clustered in short, dense axillary or terminal racemes 3-8 cm long; the calyx is campanulate with short, broad teeth. The fruit is a flat, oblong, beaked legume 2-5 cm long and about 1.5 cm wide, becoming brown and dehiscent at maturity to display 3-8 striking, hard, ovoid seeds 6-9 mm long, glossy scarlet with a sharply contrasting black hilar spot at one end. These seeds contain the highly toxic ribosome-inactivating lectin abrin and are extremely poisonous if chewed and swallowed. The species grows in disturbed lowland forest margins, hedgerows, secondary scrub and waste places throughout the tropics.