Sesbania javanica (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Sesbania javanica Miquel

Family: Leguminosae - Papilionoideae

Synonyms

• Sesbania aculeata (Willd.) Pers. var. paludosa (Roxb.) Baker,
• S. paludosa (Roxb.) Prain,
• S. roxburghii Merrill.

Vernacular names

• Cambodia: snaô
• Laos: sanô:.

Distribution

From India and China throughout South-East Asia to Australia.

Uses

Used as a green manure and hedge plant in wet areas. The leaves are used for forage and as a vegetable. In Cambodia flowers are prepared with sugar or salt and eaten.

Observations

• Herb or subshrub, 1-5 m tall, softly woody at the base. Stem and leaves glabrous.
• Leaves with 10-30 pairs of leaflets; petiole very short; leaflets subopposite, linear-oblong, 0.5-4 cm × 2-7 mm, apex broadly rounded to truncate and mucronulate.
• Inflorescence a raceme up to 11 cm long with 5-14 flowers; pedicel 5-14 mm long.
• Calyx tube 6-8 mm, teeth 2 mm long; corolla 2-3 cm long, orange-yellow with purple markings on the back of the standard.
• Pod flat cylindrical, 20-30 cm × 4-5 mm, with about 45 seeds.
• Seed globose-ellipsoid, 3.5-5 mm × 2.5 mm, greenish-olive to dark brown or blackish.

In permanent swamps or along watercourses, up to 500 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.
• Burbidge, N.T., 1965. The Australian species of Sesbania Scopoli (Leguminosae). Australian Journal of Botany 13: 103-141.
• 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.
• Mansfeld, R., 1986. Verzeichnis landwirtschaflicher und gärtnerischer Kulturpflanzen (ohne Zierpflanzen) [Register of cultivated agricultural and horticultural plants (without ornamentals)]. Schultze-Motel, J. et al., editors 2nd edition, 4 volumes. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 1998 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