| DESCRIPTION: Herbaceous legume reaching 1-3 m in height, erect, leafy. USE: It has high nitrogen fixing ability making it particularly useful for crop rotations with rice, as a green manure or for making a rich compost. A good crop, with 500000 plants/ha, produces 4-5 t DM in 55-60 days. i.e. 160-200 kg of pure nitrogen equivalent. This is a nitrogen fixation power still higher than in soya bean. GROWING PERIOD: Annual or perennial under favourable conditions. Growing during the rainy season. COMMON NAMES: Rostrate sesbania. FURTHER INF: It occurs from sea level to 1500 m altitude. Mostly found in wet and muddy places on flood plains, in seasonal swamps and around the margins of more permanent swamps into quite dry country. On deep clayey alluvial soils, periodically flooded or water-logged. |