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Crotalaria madurensis
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Family:
FABACEAE/LEGUMINOSAE (Subfam.: Papilionoideae)
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Citation: Crotalaria madurensis Wight ex WIght in Wight & Arn., Prodr. 184. 1834; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 2: 79. 1876; Sanjappa, Legumes Ind. 123. 1992; Ansari, Crotalaria India 235. 2008.
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Malayalam Name(s):
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
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Description:
Much branched, silky-tomentose subshrubs or shrubs, up to 3 m high; stem terete. Leaves simple, alternate, 5.0-9.5 x 2.5-5.0 cm, elliptic-oblanceolate, obovate or ovate-oblong, broadly rounded or cuneate at base, subacute or obtuse and apiculate at apex, margins ciliate, densely softly golden sericeous on both surfaces; lateral veins ca 12 pairs, joining intra-marginally, depressed above and raised on the lower surface; petioles 7-8 mm long; stipules absent. Panicles terminal and axillary, leafy. 15-30 cm long. Flowers numerous, ca 3 cm long; bracts alternate, ovate-lanceolate or broadly ovate, 0.8-1.0 cm long, acuminate, deeply cordate, amplexicaul, trinerved, yellowish, silky pubescent without, glabrous within, subdeciduous; bracteoles like bracts and adpressed to calyx; pedicels ca 5 mm long, alternate. Calyx deeply lobed, tube 3.5-4.0 mm long, lobes equal or obscurely 2-lipped, divided to base, 0.9-1.2 x 0.4-0.6 cm, upper lip 2-lobed, lobes ovate or elliptic, cordate at base, trinerved, lower 3-lobed, lobes linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, yellowish-brown, densely silky-pubescent, lateral nerves reticulate towards margins, dark coloured when dry. Petals yellow, twice as long as calyx; vexillum ovate-suborbicular, 2-3 x ca 1.5 cm, hairy on the back and along margins; wing petals obovate or obliquely obovate-oblong, ca 2 x 0.8 cm, glabrous; keel petals ovate, ca 2 x 1 cm, beak twisted, hairy on the back and on the margins up to the middle. Staminal sheath 7-8 mm long, sericeous at the apex; free filaments 1-2 cm long; longer anthers oblong, ca 3 mm long; shorter anthers ovoid, ca 0.7 mm long. Ovary sessile or shortly stalked, densely pubescent; style up to 2 cm long; ovules 14-16. Pods subsessile, oblong, 2.5-3.0 cm long, yellowish, pubescent; seeds 10-12.
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Habit:
Shrub
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Flowering & Fruiting:
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District(s):
Wayanad
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Shola forests and grasslands
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Distribution:
Soutthern Western Ghats
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Aquatic:
No
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Epiphyte(s):
No
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Saprophyte:
No
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Stem parasite:
No
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Root parasite:
No
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Flower colour(s):
Yellow
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Weed:
No
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Monocot/Dicot:
Dicotyledonous Plants
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Exotic:
No
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Garden:
No
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Edible:
No
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Vegetable:
No
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Endemic to:
Southern Western Ghats
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IUCN status:
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Altitude:
100-1600
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Localities:
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