Canavalia maritima (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Canavalia maritima (Aublet) du Petit-Thouars

Family: Leguminosae - Papilionoideae

Synonyms

• Dolichos maritimus Aublet,
• Canavalia obtusifolia (Lamk) DC.,
• C. rosea (Swartz) DC.

Vernacular names

• Bay-bean (En)
• Indonesia: kekara laut, joa-joa dowongi (Moluccas)
• Malaysia: kacang rang-rang, kacang laut
• Philippines: lagaylai, magtambokau (Bisayas), pataning-dagat (Tagalog)
• Thailand: kaitia, thua khla (Bangkok)
• Vietnam: dậu dao biển, dây dậu.

Distribution

Widespread along the sea coasts throughout the tropics and warm subtropics, except the Mediterranean.

Uses

C. maritima is a spontaneous sand binder on beaches; it is occasionally cultivated as a cover crop in plantations.

Observations

• Perennial herb with trailing or climbing stem, 2-10 m long, becoming somewhat woody with age, silky hairy when young, glabrescent.
• Leaves alternate, trifoliolate; leaflets elliptical to nearly round, up to 12 cm × 10 cm, coriaceous, glabrous to sparsely pubescent.
• Inflorescence racemose, pendulous or upright, 4-18 cm long beyond a 10-21 cm long peduncle.
• Flowers 2-3 together along rachis, pink-purple or mauve, sometimes bluish, often with white or yellow area; calyx campanulate, 11-14 mm long; standard rounded, 2-3 cm in diameter; stamens 10, monadelphous.
• Pod compressed-cylindrical, 10-17 cm × 2.5 cm, spirally dehiscent, sometimes explosively so, pale tan, with 2 ribs along sutures and a rib about 3 mm from ventral rib.
• Seed ellipsoid, 15-20 mm × 9-14 mm × 10 mm, slightly compressed, brown with darker markings.

C. maritima occurs commonly on beaches and edges of coastal bushland, often in association with Ipomoea pes-caprae (L.) Sweet, occasionally inland along roadsides or lake shores. It flowers throughout the year, even in the subtropics. The seed is buoyant and impermeable to water.

Selected sources

• 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.
• 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.
• Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, the Hague, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 261, 1450 pp.
• Mansfeld, R., 1986. Verzeichnis landwirtschaflicher und gärtnerischer Kulturpflanzen (ohne Zierpflanzen) [Register of cultivated agricultural and horticultural plants (without ornamentals)]. Schultze-Motel, J. et al., editors 2nd edition, 4 volumes. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 1998 pp.
• National Academy of Sciences, 1979. Tropical legumes: resources for the future. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., United States. 331 pp.
• Sauer, J., 1964. Revision of Canavalia. Brittonia 16: 106-181.
• 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.

Authors

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