Taxonomy: Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Fabales > Fabaceae > Neustanthus > N. phaseoloides

Description: Climber or trailer sometimes forming a tangled dense mat. Stems glabrescent to covered with long spreading ferruginous hairs. Leaflets ovate or rhomboid, 2–12 cm. long, 1·5–11 cm. wide, entire or lobed, acute or acuminate at the apex, rounded or cuneate at the base, pubescent above, usually velvety pilose beneath; petioles 2–13 cm. long. Inflorescences with rachis and peduncle each up to ± 15 cm. long. Corolla mauve; standard 1–2 cm. long. Pods linear, compressed, 4–11 cm. long, 3–4·5 mm. wide, mostly densely apressed pilose. Seeds blackish-brown, oblong-sub cylindrical, minutely reticulate, longest dimension 3–3·5 mm., shorter dimension 2·3 mm., 2 mm. thick.

Flowering and Fruiting : October to March

Uses : Pueraria phaseoloides is grown as a cover crop (often with centro and calopo in oil palm, rubber and coconut. The main advantages of using P. phaseoloides as a cover crop is the comparable high nitrogen accumulation and the improvement of the soil structure due to its deep rooting system. It can be used as a grazed forage crop and as green manure in crop rotations. Furthermore, it can be used to prevent soil erosion on sloppy soils. In Africa it is mainly used as cover crops in plantations whereas in tropical America, south-east Asia it is used as forage crop in mixtures and as cover crops. In Malaysia its extracts are used as medicine.

Cultivation : common

References

http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org

https://indiabiodiversity.org