Uraria lagopodioides (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Uraria lagopodioides (L.) Desv. ex DC.

Family: Leguminosae - Papilionoideae

Synonyms

• Hedysarum lagopodioides L.,
• Uraria alopecuroides (Roxb.) Sweet.

Vernacular names

• Tick trefoil (En)
• Indonesia: ekor tupai (general), buntut rase (Javanese), rai-rai (Ternate)
• Malaysia: pokok korat tanah, ekur anjing. Philippines; basing karan (Bagobo), ikug-kuting (Subanun)
• Cambodia: kântuy kâm'prôk
• Laos: bai khi:z hno:n no:yz, ha:ng ma:z
• Thailand: ya-hangon
• Vietnam: duôi chôn.

Distribution

From northern India throughout South-East Asia to Australia, extending into the Pacific up to New Caledonia.

Uses

Grown locally as a green manure in India and Indonesia. It is widely used medicinally. A decoction of leaves and roots is used for the treatment of dysentery and diarrhoea. In India, aqueous and alcoholic extracts of the plants are used to treat intermittent fever and chest inflammation. An aqueous extract of the leaves has abortifacient properties.

Observations

• Suffrutescent herb, often creeping, up to 1.5 m long. Branches terete, densely pubescent, glabrescent.
• Leaves alternate, partially 3-foliolate, partially or rarely all 1-foliolate; petiole up to 4 cm long; stipules lanceolate, 4-8 mm long, acuminate, persistent; stipels 1-4 mm long; leaflets variable, elliptical or ovate, 2.5-7 cm × 1-6.5 cm, apex obtuse or slightly emarginate, lower surface densely hairy.
• Inflorescence a simple, terminal, dense, cylindrical pseudoraceme, 2.5-10 cm long; bracts ovate, acuminate, 6-8 mm long, containing 2 flowers, silky, persistent; pedicel 4-8 mm long, densely pubescent.
• Calyx campanulate, 7 mm long; corolla 5-6 mm long, pinkish violet or bluish violet; standard broadly obovate, 5-7 mm × 4.5-6.5 mm; wings 2 mm long, with short claw; keel longer than wings, curved.
• Pod 1-2-jointed, joints up to 3 mm long, grey or black.
• Seed 2 mm × 1.2 mm, brown.

U. lagopodioides occurs commonly in dry grassland, open forest, waste places, roadsides, sandy areas and occasionally in deciduous forest, but not in waterlogged locations, up to 2000 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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