Chamaecrista pumila (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Chamaecrista pumila (Lamk) K. Larsen

Family: Leguminosae - Caesalpinioideae

• Cassia pumila Lamk.

• Indonesia: enceng-enceng (Javanese)
• Thailand: makham-bia, makham din
• Vietnam: me dất.

Throughout tropical Asia and Australia.

A useful ground cover and green manure, competing well with weeds. It is recommended in tea plantations in Indonesia. In India it is considered a weed in e.g. sorghum.

• Procumbent or erect woody herb or shrub up to 50 cm tall with pubescent branches.
• Leaves pinnately compound with 10-25 pairs of leaflets, sensitive to the touch; petiole 3-7 mm long, with a long stalked gland between the lowest pair of leaflets; rachis grooved alongside, 2-5 cm long; leaflets opposite, sessile, sublinear, 7-12 mm × 2-3 mm, glabrous or with few hairs on the midrib, apex rounded with a long mucro.
• Inflorescence a short, supra-axillary raceme bearing 1-3 flowers; pedicel pubescent, 4-6 mm long.
• Sepals lanceolate, 5-6 mm long; petals bright yellow, unequal, oblong, 2-3 mm long with a short claw; stamens 5, subequal; ovary hairy.
• Pod flat, strap-shaped, 2-5 cm × 0.5 cm, dehiscent, 10-15-seeded.
• Seed flat, subrhomboidal, about 3 mm long, brown, smooth.

C. pumila is often found on sandy soils near the coast, along roadsides, in dry deciduous forest, but also as a weed in rice fields, up to 300 m altitude in monsoon regions. Transplanting nursery-sown plants is preferable to direct sowing. Weeding several times after planting is required. Plants cover the soil after about 10 weeks and start flowering 6 weeks later. They can be dug in when starting to die off, after about 1 year.

• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr., R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. 647, 641, 761 pp.
• Backer, C.A. & van Slooten, D.F., 1924. Geïllustreerd handboek der Javaansche theeonkruiden en hunne beteekenis voor de cultuur [Illustrated handbook of the weeds of Javanese tea plantations and their significance for tea-growing]. Ruygrok, Batavia, Dutch East Indies. 308 pp.
• de Wit, H.C.D., 1956. The genus Cassia in Malaysia. Webbia 11: 197-292.
• Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950-. Series 1. Volume 1, 4-. Kluwer, Dordrecht & Flora Malesiana Foundation, Leiden, the Netherlands.
• Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Viêt-nam [Flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam] (various editors), 1960-. Volume 1-. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoire de Phanérogamie, Paris, France.
• Larsen, K., 1993. Note on the nomenclature of Cassieae (Leguminosae - Caesalpinioideae) in Malaysia. Nordic Journal of Botany 13: 403-404.
• Lock, J.M. & Heald, J., 1994. Legumes of Indo-China: a checklist. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. 164 pp.
• Smitinand, T., Larsen, K. & Hanssen, B. (Editors), 1970-. Flora of Thailand. Volume 2-. Danida, TISTR Press, Bangkok, Thailand.

• M.S.M. Sosef & L.J.G. van der Maesen