Crotalaria goreensis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Crotalaria goreensis Guill. & Perr.

Family: Leguminosae - Papilionoideae

Vernacular names

• Gambia pea (En).

Distribution

Widespread in tropical Africa, introduced into Asia, Australia and South America.

Uses

Used as green manure for tobacco and sugar cane in Australia (Queensland). It has performed well in New Guinea.

Observations

• Annual or short-lived often bushy perennial, up to 2.5 m tall. Stem finely ribbed, densely covered with minute, appressed or spreading hairs.
• Leaves trifoliolate; petiole 3.5-6.5 cm long; stipules oblong-falcate, unequal-sided, 10-25 mm long; leaflets linear-oblanceolate to obovate, 2.5-8.5 cm × 0.8-2.5 cm, appressed-pubescent.
• Inflorescence a raceme, up to 24 cm long, many-flowered; calyx 3-5 mm long, hairy, lobes triangular, as long as the tube; standard ovate, yellow with orange, brown or purple; keel 8.5-10 mm long, wings a little shorter.
• Pod subsessile, oblong-ellipsoid, 15-20 mm × 7-9 mm, sparsely hairy, 12-16-seeded, brown or purplish.
• Seed oblong-reniform, about 4 mm long, minutely granulate, yellowish.

C. goreensis is self-pollinating and nodulates well. It occurs in deciduous woodland and grassland and on disturbed soil, where ample moisture is available, at 600-1200 m altitude.

Selected sources

• Berhaut, J., 1971-1988. Flore illustrée du Sénégal. Volume 1-6, 9. Ministère du Développement Rural et de l'Hydraulique, Direction des Eaux et Forêts. Editions Clairafrique, Dakar, Sénégal.
• Flora of Tropical East Africa (various editors), 1952-. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom & A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
• Hacker, J.B., 1990. A guide to herbaceous and shrub legumes of Queensland. University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, Australia. 351 pp.
• Lazarides, M. & Hince, B. (Editors), 1993. CSIRO handbook of economic plants of Australia. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 330 pp.
• Polhill, R.M., 1982. Crotalaria in Africa and Madagascar. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. 389 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.

Authors

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