Crotalaria laburnifolia (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Crotalaria laburnifolia L.

Family: Leguminosae - Papilionoideae

Vernacular names

• Bird flower, velvety rattlebox (En).
• Pistache marron (Fr)
• Thailand: kinghai, tinghai (central).

Distribution

Originally from eastern to southern Africa, now introduced and occasionally naturalized in tropical Asia and Australia.

Uses

Green manure with good leaf production, but suffering from pests and soon becoming woody and probably no longer used. It is sometimes planted as an ornamental in Sri Lanka. Medicines prepared from the seed purify blood, and are used to treat sore throats and skin diseases and as an emmenagogue. Pyrolizidine alkaloids like anacrotine and madurensine have been extracted from the seeds in South Africa, the former being antispasmodic and possibly hepatotoxic. Seed also contains flavanone glycosides.

Observations

• Perennial, woody, very variable herb, 0.6-2 m tall, branches glabrous to sparsely pubescent.
• Leaves trifoliolate; petiole up to 13 cm long; leaflets narrowly oblong to elliptical, 1-10.5 cm × 0.5-5.5 cm, glabrous to hairy.
• Inflorescence a lax raceme, up to 50 cm long, many-flowered.
• Calyx 1.2-1.7 cm long, subglabrous; standard ovate, 1.5-2 cm × 2-3 cm, yellow, red-veined; keel 2-3 cm long, strongly rounded with truncate beak, 1.5-2 times as long as the wings.
• Pod subcylindrical, 4.5-15 cm × 1 cm, on a stipe 2-10 cm long, glabrous, often mottled reddish when young.
• Seed obliquely heart-shaped, 4-5 mm long, brown or yellow-brown.

In South-East Asia C. laburnifolia is often found near sea shores, in Africa in deciduous woodland, grassland, along roadsides and in fields, up to 1800 m altitude.

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.
• Flora of Tropical East Africa (various editors), 1952-. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom & A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
• 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.
• 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.
• Wealth of India (various editors), 1948-1976. A dictionary of Indian raw materials and industrial products: raw materials. 11 volumes. Publications and Information Directorate, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, India. 4441 pp.

Authors

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