Aeschynomene nilotica
Taub.
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What to Eat
Edible parts: Leaves, Vegetable
The fresh leaves are eaten as a vegetable.
Where to Find It
It is a tropical plant. It grows on the edge of water and near swamps. In southern Africa it grows between 850-1,050 m altitude.
Africa, Botswana, Cameroon, Central Africa, Chad, Congo, East Africa, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Sahel, Southern Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, West Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
How to Identify
A shrub. It has thick stems. It grows 2 m high. It floats in deep water and roots in the soil in shallow water. Young stems are slightly hairy. The leaves have 24-80 leaflets. The leaflets are 5-25 mm long by 1-5 mm wide. There are very fine teeth along the edge. There are 3-8 flowers in a group in the axils of leaves. The standard is yellow. The fruit is a pod 2-9 cm long. It is narrow and straight. It has 4-9 joints. The seeds are dark reddish-brown. They are 7 mm long by 4 mm wide and 1 mm thick.
Notes
There are 150 Aeschynomene species.
Names & Synonyms
Namayara, Takudinoka
References (6)
- Burkill, H. M., 1985, The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 3. Kew.
- Flora Zambesiaca. http://apps.kew.org/efloras
- Global Plants JSTOR
- Grubben, G. J. H. and Denton, O. A. (eds), 2004, Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 2. Vegetables. PROTA, Wageningen, Netherlands. p 559
- Hepper,
- Larson, T. J., 1970, Hambukushu Ethno-botany. Botswana Notes and Records. Vol 13.
