Vigna pilosa (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Vigna pilosa (Willd.) Baker

Family: Leguminosae - Papilionoideae

Synonyms

• Dolichos pilosus Willd.,
• Dysolobium pilosum (Willd.) Maréchal,
• Dolichovigna pilosa (Willd.) Hasokawa.

Distribution

South and South-East Asia and Taiwan. Occasionally cultivated also elswhere.

Uses

Green manure and cover crop for both sunny conditions and light shade.

Observations

• Climbing herb, 1-3 m long. Branches tender, white-hairy.
• Leaves trifoliolate; petiole 3-5 cm long; leaflets ovate to oblong-acuminate, 2-19 cm × 1-7.5 cm, rounded at the base, obtuse-mucronate at the apex; stipules triangular, about 3 mm long.
• Inflorescence an axillary pseudoraceme, up to 12 cm long, many-flowered; pedicel up to 6 mm long.
• Calyx campanulate, hairy, 4-lobed, upper lobe with a bifid apex, lowest lobe longest; corolla pink, about 1.5 cm long; standard rounded, minutely auricled at the base; wings oblong, about 0.5 cm long; keel with obtuse beak, about 1 cm long.
• Pod linear, compressed, 6-14 cm × 5-7 mm, densely hirsute, brown, style persistent, 5-12-seeded.
• Seed almost cylindrical, 5-7 mm × 4 mm, black.

V. pilosa is often found in hedges, bamboo forest and deforested areas, on clay soils at low elevation, up to 1000 m altitude. It is slow to establish, covering the soil after about 3 months and providing sufficient litter after 6 months. It withstands waterlogging. In Java, flowering is from March to November, but seed production is low.

Selected sources

53, 53.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. 97, 97.Lock, J.M. & Heald, J., 1994. Legumes of Indo-China: a checklist. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. 164 pp. 168.168.van Welzen, P.C. & den Hengst, S., 1985. A revision of the genus Dysolobium (Papilionaceae) and the transfer of subgenus Dolichovigna to Vigna. Blumea 30: 363-383.

Authors

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