Crotalaria incana (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Crotalaria incana L.

Family: Leguminosae - Papilionoideae

Synonyms

• Crotalaria pubescens Moench.

Vernacular names

• Woolly rattlepod (En)
• Indonesia: orok-orok kebo (Java), jojorore (Ternate)
• Philippines: balai laua, putok-putokan (Tagalog)
• Thailand: hingmen-luang.

Distribution

Occurring naturally in tropical South America and the Caribbean, now pantropical, including South-East Asia.

Uses

Green manure, promising in coffee. It is found as a weed in oil-palm and rubber plantations. Cattle avoid eating it. Its cultivation was discontinued in Bogor, Indonesia, because it was attacked by insects. Toxins include pyrolizidine alkaloids. Flowers and unripe fruits are used as abortifacient in Paraguay, where the pods are a magic cure for mute and stuttering children.

Observations

• Annual, variable, bushy herb up to 1.5(-3.5) m tall and variously hairy.
• Leaves trifoliolate; stipules filiform, up to 2 cm long; petiole usually longer than leaflets; leaflets obovate, elliptical or rounded, 2.5-5 cm × 1.7-4.4 cm, thinly hairy below.
• Inflorescence a lax raceme, 10-30 cm long, 12-30(-60)-flowered.
• Calyx 7-11 mm long, subglabrous to hairy, lobes about twice as long as the tube; standard elliptical, yellow, reddish-brown or purple veined, subglabrous; wings as long as the keel, 8-11.5 mm long; keel bent at a right angle in lower half, woolly hairy on the upper margin.
• Pod spindle or club-shaped, subsessile, 3-4.5 cm × 8-12 mm, hairy, 40-50-seeded.
• Seed obliquely heart-shaped, about 3 mm long, smooth or faintly papillose, pale brown, olive-green or mottled.

C. incana is found in deciduous bushland, grassland, dry stream beds, river banks and as a weed in fields and waste places, usually preferring moist sites, up to 2300 m altitude.

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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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