Chamaecrista mimosoides (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Chamaecrista mimosoides (L.) E. Greene

Family: Leguminosae - Caesalpinioideae

Synonyms

• Cassia mimosoides L.,
• C. angustissima Lamk,
• C. procumbens auct., non L.

Vernacular names

• Patwa grass (En)
• Indonesia: tuturiyan (Sundanese), dinding (Javanese), palia tunggal (Sumba)
• Philippines: katanda (Bukidnon)
• Thailand: ya-kraduk-ueng, ya-nieolek
• Vietnam: tra tiền (Phu Kanh).

Distribution

Possibly indigenous to continental tropical South-East Asia, now pantropical.

Uses

Self-seeding green manure, providing a light ground cover and stabilizing loose sandy soils. Opinions on usefulness vary. It has been recommended as a shade and cover plant in tea plantations at about 1500 m altitude in India, but is also considered a weed in India and Sri Lanka. It is edible for cattle, reportedly relished by giraffe and some species of antelope, but also referred to as unsuitable for fodder as it contains toxins such as chrysophenol, an anthraquinone. In India the root is used medicinally against stomach pains.

Observations

• Erect to decumbent herb or low shrub, up to 1 m tall with pubescent branches.
• Leaves sensitive to the touch, pinnately compound, with 20-80 pairs of leaflets; petiole 3-10 mm long, with sessile gland below lowest pair of leaflets; rachis 3-10 cm long; leaflets sessile, unequal-sided, linear, 4-8 mm × 1 mm, sparsely hairy along the margin.
• Flowers axillary, solitary or 2-3 together in a raceme; pedicel 5-10 mm long; petals bright yellow, obovate to orbicular, 4-10 mm long; stamens 7-10.
• Pod flat, strap-shaped, 3-6 cm × 0.5 cm, 10-20-seeded, glabrous to hairy, dehiscent.
• Seed brown, flat, 4 mm × 2 mm.

C. mimosoides occurs in open woodland and grassland, up to 2300 m altitude. It flowers year round. C. mimosoides is closely related to C. lechenaultiana (DC.) Degener; its smaller leaflets are much more sensitive to the touch.

Selected sources

• Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2nd Edition. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2444 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.
• 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.
• Smitinand, T., Larsen, K. & Hanssen, B. (Editors), 1970-. Flora of Thailand. Volume 2-. Danida, TISTR Press, Bangkok, Thailand.
• 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