| DESCRIPTION: Herbaceous legume reaching up to 50 cm in height. Stems usually covered in dense hairs (trichomes). Leaves alternate, compound pinnate with 10-25 opposite pairs of leaflets. Leaflets narrow sometimes sensitive to touch, folding when disturbed. Flowers solitary, complete, irregular in shape, yellow, up to 1.4 cm wide. USE: Used as cut-and-carry forage or hay. Pollen source for bees. Used as a remedy for stomach ache and fever. GROWING PERIOD: Annual sometimes perennial. COMMON NAMES: Partridge pea, Sensitive partridge-pea, Sensitive-pea, Wild sensitive-plant. FURTHER INF: Native to woods, prairies, thickets, wet or dry shores, on sandy soils, commonly in disturbed habitats throughout America from North eastern United States to southern Argentina. Naturalized in tropical & subtropical Asia & elsewhere. Found on a wide range of soil types but most prevalent on free-draining sands of acid to neutral reaction. |