Cajanus scarabaeoides (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Cajanus scarabaeoides (L.) du Petit-Thouars

Family: Leguminosae - Papilionoideae

Synonyms

• Atylosia scarabaeoides (L.) Benth.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: dele rambat, kacang gude, kedelen (Javanese)
• Philippines: kidalis logua (Maranao); mangkitbagin (Tagalog)
• Thailand: thua-pi
• Vietnam: dâu tương dại (Hanoi), báy nỡ (Hué).

Distribution

Widespread in South and South-East Asia and northern Australia, and spreading in Africa and the Caribbean.

Uses

Component of ground cover and undergrowth in teak plantations and drought-resistant pasture. It improves barren rangeland, but its actual role as green manure is unknown.

Observations

• Prostrate herb or creeper-climber, puberulous.
• Leaves trifoliolate, petiole 4-20 mm, rachis 2-5 mm long. Leaflets obovate, 15-45 mm × 7-27 mm, coriaceous, with punctate glands below, sparsely white pubescent.
• Inflorescence a short, axillary raceme with 1-6 yellow flowers.
• Calyx up to 9 mm long, teeth lanceolate; standard obovate, sometimes with red veins.
• Pod oblong, 15-20 cm × 6-10 mm, constricted between the seeds, 2-6-seeded.
• Seed 4-5 mm × 2 mm, beetle-like because of the strophiole, greyish with black and cream mottle.

C. scarabaeoides occurs in open grassland, dry scrub vegetation and deciduous monsoon forest as a drought-resistant element in the dry season, up to 1000 m altitude. It acts against diarrhoea in cattle. A long-peduncled variety is found in northern Australia.

Selected sources

• Editorial Committee of the Flora of Taiwan (Editor), 1993-1994. Flora of Taiwan. 2nd Edition. Volumes 1 and 3. Epoch Publishing Company, Taipei, Taiwan. 648, 1084 pp.
• Flora of Tropical East Africa (various editors), 1952-. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom & A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, 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.
• Hacker, J.B., 1990. A guide to herbaceous and shrub legumes of Queensland. University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, Australia. 351 pp.
• van der Maesen, L.J.G., 1986. Cajanus DC. and Atylosia W. & A. (Leguminosae). Agricultural University Wageningen Papers No 85-4. Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen, the Netherlands. 225 pp.
• Verdcourt, B., 1979. A manual of New Guinea legumes. Botany Bulletin No 11. Office of Forests, Division of Botany, Lae, Papua New Guinea. 645 pp.
• Wealth of India (various editors), 1948-1976. A dictionary of Indian raw materials and industrial products: raw materials. 11 volumes. Publications and Information Directorate, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, India. 4441 pp.

Authors

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