Uraria picta

(Jacq.) DC.

FabaceaeFruit

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(c) Mathias D'haen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Mathias D'haen

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(c) Anne-Hélène Paradis, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Anne-Hélène Paradis

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The ripe fruits are eaten raw.

Where to Find It

It is a tropical plant. In East Africa it grows from sea level to 2,400 m above sea level. It grows on flood plains and marshy lands. It can be in wet grassland savannah and along river banks. In China it grows on grassy slopes between 400-1,500 m above sea level.

Africa, Angola, Asia, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China, Côte d'Ivoire, East Africa, Guinea, Guinée, Guinea-Bissau, Himalayas, India, Indochina, Ivory Coast, Japan, Malaysia, Mali, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Ryukyu, Sao Tome and Principe, SE Asia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, West Africa, Zimbabwe,

Countries: United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Armenia, Angola, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Bahrain, Burundi, Benin, Brunei, Bhutan, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, China, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Georgia, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Israel, India, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Japan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, Comoros, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Laos, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Myanmar, Mongolia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Maldives, Malawi, Malaysia, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Nepal, Oman, Philippines, Pakistan, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sudan, Singapore, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Syria, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Thailand, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Taiwan, Tanzania, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

How to Identify

A tall herb or shrub. It keeps growing from year to year. It can grow up to 1.8 m tall. The stems have short rough hairs. The leaves are compound. They have 5-9 leaflets at one at the end. The lower most leaflets have 3 lobes. The leaflets are narrowly sword shaped and 7-25 cm long. They are rough and hairy underneath. There are many flowers in a long dense spike at the ends of the branches. These can be 55 cm long. The flowers are pink, blue or red. The fruit are 5-9 mm long.

Medicinal Uses

The roots are used in medicine.

Wikipedia

Source ↗

Uraria picta, also known by its common name Prishniparni is a species from the genus Uraria. The species was described in 1825.

Other Information

It is fairly commonly eaten in West Africa.

Notes

The roots are used in medicine.

Names & Synonyms

Alagno, Dabra, Hauvi mau, Kamaring kouliho, Kyemi-ma, Pithwan, Zumbu

Doodia pictia (Jacquin) RoxburghHedysarum pictum JacquinUraria leucantha Zippelius ex SpanogheUraria linearis Hasskarl

References (4)

Ambe, G., 2001, Les fruits sauvages comestibles des savanes guinéennes de Côte-d’Ivoire : état de la connaissance par une population locale, les Malinké. Biotechnol. Agron. Soc. Environ. 5(1), 43-48
Diarra, N. et al, 2016, Etude ethnobotanique des plantes alimentaires utilisées en période de soudure dans les régions Sud du Mali. Int. J. Biol. Chem. Sci. 10(1): 184-197
Khayde, M. S., et al, 2009, Wild Edible Plants Used by the tribes of Akole Tahasil of Ahmednagar District (MS), India. Ethnobotanical Leaflets 13:1328-36
World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew