{"url":"https://treescape.app/api/genera/mucuna/?format=json","slug":"mucuna","latin_name":"Mucuna","description":"Mucuna is a genus of around 114 accepted species of climbing lianas (vines) and shrubs of the family Fabaceae: tribe Phaseoleae, typically found in tropical and subtropical forests in the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, southern, southeastern, and eastern Asia, New Guinea, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.\nThe leaves are trifoliolate, alternate, or spiraled, and the flowers are pea-like but larger, with distinctive curved petals, and occurring in racemes. Like other legumes, Mucuna plants bear pods. They are generally bat-pollinated and produce seeds that are buoyant sea-beans. These have a characteristic three-layered appearance, appearing like the eyes of a large mammal in some species and like a hamburger in others (most notably M. sloanei) and giving rise to common names like deer-eye beans, donkey-eye beans, ox-eye beans, or hamburger seed.\nThe name of the genus is derived from mucunã, a Tupi–Guarani word for these species.","gbif_id":2951351,"image_thumbnail":"https://treescape.app/media/plant_species/images/thumbnails/mucuna_thumbnail_9p1gMGQ.jpg","image_large":"https://treescape.app/media/plant_species/images/large/mucuna_thumbnail_LV84p7m.jpg"}