Derris malaccensis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia
Introduction

Protologue: Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal 66: 107 (1897).

Synonyms

Throughout Malesia; cultivated outside Malesia in India, southern China and tropical America.

The roots of D. malaccensis are used as insecticide and fish poison.

A liana up to at least 15 m long, root greyish-brown, young shoots adpressed pubescent.
Leaflets 5-9, glabrous above, adpressed pubescent beneath.
Inflorescence axillary.
Flowers with glabrous pink calyx and whitish or pinkish corolla, standard with basal callosities, glabrous.
Fruit oblong, with a narrow wing along both sides, rarely without wings.

D. malaccensis often occurs in riverine rain forest, up to 250 m altitude.

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Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1948-1976. The wealth of India: a dictionary of Indian raw materials & industrial products. 11 volumes. Publications and Information Directorate, New Delhi, India.
Duke, J.A., 1981. Handbook of legumes of world economic importance. Plenum Press, New York, United States & London, United Kingdom. 345 pp.
Rickard, P.P. & Cox, P.A., 1986. Use of Derris as a fish poison in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Economic Botany 40(4): 479-484.
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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.