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Useful Tropical Plants

Neonotonia wightii

(Wight & Arn.) J.A.Lackey

Fabaceae

+ Synonyms

Glycine albidiflora De Wild.

Glycine bujacia Benth.

Glycine bujasia Benth.

Glycine claessensii De Wild.

Glycine javanica auct.

Glycine javanica claessensii (De Wild.) Hauman

Glycine javanica longicauda (Schweinf.) Baker

Glycine javanica mearnsii (De Wild.) Hauman

Glycine javanica micrantha (A.Rich.) F.J.Herm.

Glycine javanica pseudojavanica (Taub.) Hauman

Glycine longicauda Schweinf.

Glycine mearnsii De Wild.

Glycine micrantha A.Rich.

Glycine moniliformis A.Rich.

Glycine petitiana (A.Rich.) Schweinf.

Glycine pseudojavanica Taub.

Glycine wightii (Wight & Arn.) Verdc.

Glycine wightii wightii (Wight & Arn.) Verdc.

Johnia petitiana A.Rich.

Johnia wightii (Wight & Arn.) Wight & Arn.

Notonia wightii Wight & Arn.

Shuteria vestita Benth.

Soja javanica (L.) Graham

Soja wightii Graham

Common Name: Perennial Soybean

Neonotonia wightii
The plant can escape from cultivation and, as here, form a dense carpet of growth that smothers and kills the native flora
Photograph by: Forest and Kim Starr
Creative Commons License
Neonotonia wightii Neonotonia wightii Neonotonia wightii Neonotonia wightii Neonotonia wightii Neonotonia wightii Neonotonia wightii

General Information

Neonotonia wightii is a herbaceous perennial climbing plant with a strong taproot and trailing, slender, well branched, stems 60 - 450cm long[
418
Title
Ecocrop
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
]. The stems scramble over the ground, or twine into other plants for support[
305
Title
Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://www.hear.org/pier/scientificnames/index.html
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
A very good website detailing weed species that have been introduced into the Pacific Islands.
].
The plant is said to be harvested from the wild for local use as a food. It is grown as a ground cover and green manure crop for restoring worn out soils.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References


Range

Tropical Africa from Sierra Leone to Ethiopia, south to Botswana; through Arabia to India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Habitat

Not known

Properties

Weed PotentialYes
Edibility Rating *  *
Other Uses Rating *  *
HabitPerennial Climber
Height3.00 m
Cultivation StatusCultivated

Cultivation Details

Perennial soybean is a native of tropical Africa, where it is found at elevations from sea level up to 2,450 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 20 - 30°c, but can tolerate 13 - 32°c[
418
Title
Ecocrop
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
]. Mature plants can be killed by temperatures of -10°c or lower, but young growth will be severely damaged at -2°c[
418
Title
Ecocrop
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
]. A survival rate of 50% of the plants has been recorded where temperatures went down to -10°c[
418
Title
Ecocrop
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
]. Normally the plant has limited frost tolerance and leaf damage at 0°c occurs in all cultivars[
418
Title
Ecocrop
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 800 - 1,800mm, but tolerates 550 - 4,000mm[
418
Title
Ecocrop
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
]. It is best adapted to summer rainfall areas[
418
Title
Ecocrop
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
]. In Kenya, at the equator, it can be grown in the lowlands and up to 2,450 metres in elevation, in Colombia it can be found from sea level to 1,800 metres in elevation[
418
Title
Ecocrop
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
].
Performs best in deep, freely drained latosolic soils derived from basic igneous rocks, on self-mulching black soils and fertile alluvial soils. It is not suited to acid podzolic soil or solodic soils. It prefers free-draining loams to clays of basaltic or alluvial origin[
375
Title
Grassland Species - Profiles
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPC/doc/Gbase/Default.htm
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Terse information on over 650 species of plants that grow in grassland, including trees, shrubs and perennial plants as well as grasses. Gives a brief description of the plant, its range and habitat and some of its uses.
]. It is somewhat tolerant of saline soils[
375
Title
Grassland Species - Profiles
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPC/doc/Gbase/Default.htm
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Terse information on over 650 species of plants that grow in grassland, including trees, shrubs and perennial plants as well as grasses. Gives a brief description of the plant, its range and habitat and some of its uses.
]. Prefers a pH in the range 6.5 - 7, tolerating 5.7 - 7.5[
418
Title
Ecocrop
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
]. Established plants are drought tolerant[
418
Title
Ecocrop
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
].
Perennial soybean is a vigorous, perennial, twining, leguminous vine that can smother grasses and other low-lying vegetation. It has escaped from cultivation and become a weed in areas outside its native range, and is classified as 'Invasive' in some Pacific Islands[
305
Title
Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://www.hear.org/pier/scientificnames/index.html
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
A very good website detailing weed species that have been introduced into the Pacific Islands.
]..
Dry matter production may be 3.8-4.5 t/ha[
418
Title
Ecocrop
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
].
This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria, these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby[
200
Title
The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992.
Publication
 
Author
Huxley. A.
Publisher
MacMillan Press
Year
1992
ISBN
0-333-47494-5
Description
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
].

Edible Uses

Seeds - cooked. Boiled or roasted[
1587
Title
Genetic Resources of Under-exploited Legumes/Tribal Pulses of Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu
Publication
J. Econ. Taxon. Bot. Vol. 35 No.2 (2011)
Author
Kalidass C. & Mohan V.R.
Publisher
 
Year
2011
ISBN
 
Description
 
].

Medicinal

None known

Agroforestry Uses:

The plant can be used for soil restoration; as a fallow crop in abandoned gardens and as a cover crop and for woody weed control in overgrazed pastures[
310
Title
Plant Resources of Southeast Asia
Publication
 
Author
 
Website
http://proseanet.org/
Publisher
 
Year
0
ISBN
 
Description
Lots of information on the uses of the plants of SE Asia.
].

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed - it has a hard seedcoat and may benefit from scarification before sowing to speed up germination. This can usually be done by pouring a small amount of nearly boiling water on the seeds (being careful not to cook them!) and then soaking them for 12 - 24 hours in warm water. By this time they should have imbibed moisture and swollen - if they have not, then carefully make a nick in the seedcoat (being careful not to damage the embryo) and soak for a further 12 hours before sowing.
Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2024-03-28. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Neonotonia+wightii>

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