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Mucuna pruriens

Mucuna pruriens

Botanic Family: Leguminosae
Author: (Linnaeus) de Candolle

Common Names

Cowitch
Cowage
Cowhage
Velvet Bean
Kitedzi (Zambezi)
Chitsangou (Mahore)
Uwayo (Kisafwa)
Ci mao li dou (Pinyin)
Nipai (Philippines)
Khua Khau Khon (Laos)
Khua Mak Tam Nhe (Laos)
Khua Mak Lè Lai (Laos)
Pica-pica (Costa Rica)
Gwe-nge-pe (Myanmar)
Khway-lay-pe (Myanmar)
Lyon Bean
Pe-det-net (Myanmar)
White-flowered Velvet Bean
Goncha
Gwin-nge (Myanmar)
Hko-mak-awa (Myanmar)
Khwele-ya (Myanmar)
Kaunch
Kiwatch
To-ma-awn (Myanmar)
Pois à Gratter (Haiti)

Geographical Habitats

Cambodia
Guizhou - China
Guinea
India
Maluku - Indonesia
Laos
Madagascar
Perak
Perlis - Malaysia
Mozambique
Myanmar
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Sierra Leone
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Vietnam

Natural Habitats

Forest
riverside
coastal
hedgerows
bamboo forest
forest edges
thickets
forest edge
disturbed areas
pasture.

Flowering Times

Sep-Jan (China)
Aug-Dec (India)
Aug-Apr (Puerto Rico)

Fruiting Times

Oct-Apr (China)
Oct-Jan (Puerto Rico)
Jun (Papua New Guinea)

Semi-woody long slender evergreen herbaceous annual or short-lived glabrescent perennial twining liane to 6m with striate hairy stems becoming glabrescent. Trifoliolate mucronate leaves puberulent above, strigulose beneath with white hairs, to 400mm long, leaflets to 200mm x 120mm. Axillary densely-flowered 400mm white-hairy pseudo-racemes with bracts & brown stinging hairs, of 45mm blackish-purple, rarely white flowers, pubescent 10mm calyx with red stinging bristles, black-purple corolla glabrous, violet standard 25mm x 20mm, purple wings to 40mm long x 15mm, pink keel to 45mm x 15mm across. Hairy dark brown or dark red longitudinally ribbed somewhat curved mucronate unwinged pod to 100mm x 20mm with stiff dense irritating bristles.

Further References

Sturtevant 1919
Menninger 1970
Herklots 1976
Huxley 1992
RHS A-Z
FOC
FCP
Bodkin
NYBG
JDH
APDC
The Plant List 2
J.S. Gamble
BF
Thai F
VOPR
USNH
Botanicus
F Indochine
FOTA
JAA
GBS
Fedde
Merrill
SAFIO
ILDIS