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Crotalaria senegalensis (Pers.) Bacle ex Dc.

Species

Angiosperms > Fabales > Fabaceae > Crotalaria

Characteristics

An annual herb. It grows up to 1 m tall. It is slightly woody and can be erect or lying over. The leaves are compound and have 3 leaflets. The leaflets are 2-7 cm long by 1-3 cm wide. They are narrowly oval. They are hairy underneath. The flowering shoots are 12-45 cm long with 16-40 loosely arranged flowers. They are bright yellow. The fruit are pods 1-2 cm long and 0.6 cm wide. The seeds are 3 mm long. They are yellowish-brown.
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Standard bright yellow, often finely lined and ageing reddish, broadly elliptic to oblate, pubescent outside; wings obovate-oblong, nearly as long as the keel; keel (7)9–13(15) mm long, angular, with a narrow twisted beak, lanate along the upper suture.
Leaves 3-foliolate; leaflets 2–6.5 × 0.6–2.5 cm, mostly elliptic-oblong, varying from lanceolate to elliptic, appressed pubescent beneath; petiole 1.5–5 cm long; stipules 1–3 mm long, linear-subulate.
Racemes mostly 12–45 cm long, laxly (10)16–40-flowered; buds ascending; bracts 1–3.5 mm long, linear-subulate to linear-lanceolate; bracteoles on the calyx, 1–3 mm long.
Calyx (5)6–7(8) mm long, appressed pubescent; upper lobes oblong, abruptly contracted to an excentric apiculate tip, valvate, lanate along the margin inside.
Annual, erect and spreading, (0.2)0.3–1 m tall; branches appressed or subappressed pubescent.
Pod shortly stipitate, 1–1.7 × 0.5–0.7(0.8) cm, oblong-ellipsoid, pubescent, 6–16-seeded.
Seeds 2.5–3 mm long, oblique-cordiform, yellowish to brown, sometimes mottled darker.
Life form annual
Growth form herb
Growth support free-standing
Foliage retention -
Sexuality hermaphrodite
Pollination -
Spread -
Mature width (meter) -
Mature height (meter) 0.65 - 1.0
Root system -
Rooting depth (meter) -
Root diameter (meter) -
Flower color -
Blooming months -
Fruit color -
Fruiting months -
Nitrogen fixer rhizobia
Photosynthetic pathway c3

Environment

It is a tropical plant. It grows in dry fields in the drier regions of West Africa. It grows in savannah. It is usually on sand between 250-1,650 m above sea level.
Light 7-9
Soil humidity 3-7
Soil texture 3-4
Soil acidity -
Soil nutriment -
Hardiness (USDA) 9-12

Usage

Uses animal food environmental use food material non-vertebrate poison poison vertebrate poison
Edible leaves
Therapeutic use -
Human toxicity -
Animal toxicity -

Cultivation

Mode -
Germination duration (days) 21 - 30
Germination temperacture (C°) 18 - 23
Germination luminosity -
Germination treatment soaking
Minimum temperature (C°) -
Optimum temperature (C°) -
Size -
Vigor -
Productivity -

Distribution

Crotalaria senegalensis world distribution map, present in Angola, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Ethiopia, India, Mali, Mozambique, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Senegal, Chad, Tanzania, United Republic of, Yemen, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:488844-1
WFO ID wfo-0000210661
COL ID ZP46
BDTFX ID 164309
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Crotalaria senegalensis Crotalaria remotiflora Crotalaria karongensis Crotalaria carinata Crotalaria macilenta Crotalaria uncinella var. senegalensis Crotalaria senegalensis var. sanguinolenta Crotalaria senegalensis var. carinata Crotalaria senegalensis var. macilenta
WorldFloraDB 2024