Crotalaria brevidens (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Crotalaria brevidens Benth.

Family: Leguminosae - Papilionoideae

Synonym

• Crotalaria intermedia Kotschy.

Vernacular names

• Slenderleaf crotalaria (En).

Distribution

Africa, from northern Nigeria to the Sudan, Ethiopia and around Lake Victoria; introduced into South-East Asia and the Americas, naturalized in Hawaii.

Uses

A cover crop and green manure, also grown as a fodder crop. It is generally considered non-toxic, although some forms contain toxins and reduce nematode populations in subsequent grass crops. The young leaves have a high protein content and are eaten as a vegetable in Kenya. Seeds contain a gum extractable by dry milling.

Observations

• Annual or short-lived perennial, rather variable herb, 0.5-2 m tall, branches numerous, with short appressed to spreading hairs.
• Leaves trifoliolate; petiole 2-6 cm long; leaflets linear to elliptical, 4-14 cm × 0.3-3.3 cm, puberulous below.
• Inflorescence a 10-50 cm long, terminal raceme, many-flowered; bracts linear, expanded at the base, 1-3.5 mm long.
• Calyx becoming truncate at the base, deflexed against the pedicel, 3-8 mm long, hairy to glabrous; standard ovate to elliptical, clear yellow or cream with red-brown veins; wings and keel 1.2-2.4 cm long.
• Pod subsessile, narrow-cylindrical, curved at the ends, 3.5-5 cm × 0.5-0.7 cm, pubescent, with up to 80 seeds.
• Seed oblique-cordiform, up to 3 mm long, pale yellow or orange, smooth.

C. brevidens is found in open and wooded grassland and seasonal swamps, from 600-2700 m altitude, sometimes ruderal. It is an active nitrogen-fixer.

Selected sources

• Duke, J.A., 1981. Handbook of legumes of world economic importance. Plenum Press, New York, United States. 345 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.
• Polhill, R.M., 1982. Crotalaria in Africa and Madagascar. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. 389 pp.
• Purseglove, J.W., 1968. Tropical crops: dicotyledons. 2 volumes. Longmans, London, United Kingdom. 719 pp.
• Roecklein, J.C. & Leung, P.S., 1987. A profile of economic plants. Transaction Books, New Brunswick, United States. 623 pp.

Authors

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