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Many studies suggest that there are distinct regulatory processes controlling compound leaf development in different clades of legumes. Loss of function of the LEAFY(LFY) orthologs results in a reduction of leaf complexity to different degrees in inverted repeat-lacking clade (IRLC) and non-IRLC species. To further understand the role of LFYorthologs and the molecular mechanism in compound leaf development in non-IRLC plants, we studied leaf development in unifoliate leaf(un) mutant, a classical mutant of mungbean (Vigna radiataL.), which showed a complete conversion of compound leaves into simple leaves. Our analysis revealed that UNencoded the mungbean LFY ortholog (VrLFY) and played a significant role in leaf development. In situ RNA hybridization results showed that STM-like KNOXIgenes were expressed in compound leaf primordia in mungbean. Furthermore, increased leaflet number in heptafoliate leaflets1(hel1) mutants was demonstrated to depend on the function of VrLFYand KNOXIgenes in mungbean. Our results suggested that HEL1is a key factor coordinating distinct processes in the control of compound leaf development in mungbean and its related non-IRLC legumes.