Global description
Aeschynomene aspera is a shrub reaching 3 m in height whose stem is full of a white spongy pith. The leaves are alternate, subsessile, composed of 30 to 50 pairs of hairless linear leaflets. The inflorescence is an axillary cluster of 2 to 7 yellow papillionnaceous flowers with a hispid calyx. The fruit is a flat, linear pod with 4-8 echinulate joints on both sides.
General habit
A sparsely branched perennial shrub that can reach 3 m in height.
Underground system
The root system is taproot.
Stem
The stem is cylindrical with a warty surface, hairless, soft and containing a characteristic white spongy pith.
Leaf
The leaves are alternate, compound and paripinnate. They are sessile or subsessile with two 1.2-1.3 cm long lanceolate stipules at the base, auriculate at the base and rapidly deciduous. The leaf blade consists of 30 to 50 pairs of alternate or opposite, linear oblong leaflets, 3 to 13 mm long and 1.5 to 3 mm wide, glabrous on both sides, obtuse or apiculate at the apex and disymmetrical or rounded at the base, with an entire margin. The underside is glaucous green. The venation is pinnate.
Inflorescence
The inflorescence is an axillary cluster of 1 to 7 flowers, borne on a pubescent stalk with two lanceolate leafy bracts with an auriculate base at the base.
Flower
The flowers are borne on a pubescent pedicel with two small, lanceolate, auriculate-based bracts at the base. The tubular calyx is hispid, 9-10 mm long, and has two lips. The upper lip is rounded, the lower one 3-lobed. The corolla is papillionnaceous, bright yellow, 18 to 19 mm in diameter. The standard is glabrous, rounded, the carina is pubescent on the outside, brownish-white, curved and rounded at the tip. The wings are yellow. The stamens are arranged in two clusters of 5 each.
Fruit
The fruit is a flat, linear, hairless pod set at right angles to the pedicel. It is 5-7.5 cm long and 6-10 mm wide and has 4-8 joints, often indented on both sutures. Both sides are echinulate at maturity.
Seed
The seeds are shiny black, oblong to kidney-shaped, 2 to 2.5 mm long and 3 to 3.5 mm wide.
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| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
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Laos: Aeschynomene aspera flowers all year round.
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| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
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The seeds of Aeschynomene aspera are dormant with a very hard epidermis limiting germination, which can only occur in moist soils or in flooded conditions. However, more than 2 cm of standing water also prevents germination.
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| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
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Aeschynomene aspera can be distinguished from A. indica by its soft stem containing a white pith and the calyx of the hispid flower and the faces of the pod articles are echinulate, whereas A. indica has a woody stem at the base, a glabrous calyx and a pod with non-schinulate faces.
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| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
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Aeschynomene aspera grows between 0 and 900 m altitude in tropical climates with a marked dry season. It is a pioneer plant of humid to temporarily flooded environments that can be found in swamps and on the edge of rice fields. It is not demanding as to the quality of the soil and supports the pure sand of the dunes along the rivers to the peaty soils of the mangroves.
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| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
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Worldwide distribution
Aeschynomene aspera occurs in South Asia from Pakistan to northern Australia.
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| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
Cambodia: Aeschynomene aspera is a secondary weed of rice fields.
Laos: Aeschynomene aspera is a secondary weed of rice fields.
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| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
Food: In Cambodia, the young leaves are eaten as a salad.
Handicraft: The soft stems of Aeschynomene aspera are used to make hats and floats (Pakistan)
Medicinal: In Cambodia the young leaves are used as a poultice. When young, the shoots and leaves are crushed and given orally as an anti-haemorrhagic during childbirth.
| Attributions | |
| Contributors | |
| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
| Attributions | |
| Contributors | |
| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
- Grard, P., K. Homsombath, P. Kessler, E. Khuon, T. Le Bourgeois, J. Prospéri and C. Risdale (2006). Oswald V.1.0: A multimedia identification system of the major weeds of rice paddy fields of Cambodia and Lao P.D.R. Cirad. Montpellier, France, Cirad
- Grard, P., K. Homsombath, P. Kessler, E. Khuon, T. Le Bourgeois, J. Prospéri and C. Risdale (2006). Oswald V.1.0: A multimedia identification system of the major weeds of rice paddy fields of Cambodia and Lao P.D.R. Cirad. Montpellier, France, Cirad
Herbarium pictures ReCOLNAT: https://explore.recolnat.org/search/botanique/simplequery=aeschynomene%2520aspera
| Attributions | |
| Contributors | |
| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
| Root | Root |
| Kingdom | Plantae |
| Phylum | Tracheophyta |
| Class | Magnoliopsida |
| Order | Fabales |
| Family | Fabaceae |
| Genus | Aeschynomene |
| Species | Aeschynomene aspera L. |
