The tracheid bar, a strip composed of vertically oriented large tracheid‐like cells (tracheoids), occurs only in the hilum of seeds of papilionoid legumes. An anatomical survey of the bar was made from seeds representing 232 species of 97 genera from 29 of the 31 tribes recognized by Polhill. Seeds were sectioned freehand, coated, then viewed by SEM. The tracheid bar is quite uniform in its general features throughout the subfamily, although differences in size and shape of both the bar and the tracheoids were found. Eight species from tribes considered to be among the primitive elements of the subfamily exhibited three variant forms: horizontal tracheary elements instead of the usual bar (2 species), tracheid bar with subtending but separate vascular bundle (1 species), and the tracheid bar with fused horizontal tracheary elements (5 species). Bordered pits of individual cells in the tracheid bar virtually always lacked a membrane and had smooth, warty, or variously elaborate vestures on the border. This appears to be the first report of vestured pits other than in secondary xylem. With some exceptions, bordered pits tended to be vestured in primitive tribes, warty in intermediate tribes, and smooth or only slightly warty in the most advanced tribes.