Annual or biennial shrub, commonly 1 to 3 m tall but growing up to 6 m and with basal diameters reaching 10 cm under favourable conditions. Leaves are pinnately compound, 5 to 25 cm long and support (5)10 to 20 leaflet pairs. The leaflets are oblong to elliptic, rounded at both ends, mucronate at the apex, base slightly asymmetric, with a silky pubescence below. Stems often with minute prickles and often hidden among the hairs. The racemes have 2 to 8 flowers, peduncle up to 2 cm long, softly silky or pilose;pedicel 3-8 mm long, sparsely silky pilose;calyx 3-5× 3 mm, tube glabrous, teeth triangular, up to 0.7 mm long;corolla yellow, greenish-yellow, or orange. The brown pods that develop after flowering are 10 to 20 cm long, 3 mm broad, cylindrical, linear, long-tipped at apex, containing 20 to 30 seeds. Seeds 2- 3 mm long, 1.5 mm broad, cylindrical, brown to reddish-brown, with tiny blackish spots (Gillett et al., 1971;Ipor and Oyen, 1997).
Related invasive species
- Sesbania sericea
Related Farm Practice
- Development
- Conditioning
S. sericea is a fast-growing, short-lived woody shrub of frequently disturbed areas. It is commonly planted in agroforestry systems to be used as green manure, animal forage, and for soil improvement (Ipor and Oyen, 1997). However, each plant is able to produce large amounts of seeds, allowing the species to escape from cultivated areas and colonize new habitats. Seeds may survive in the soil for several months (up to one year) waiting for suitable conditions to germinate. Once established in new areas, S. sericea grows forming dense thickets and competing aggressively with grasses and native vegetation (Francis, 2000). It is included in the Global Compendium of Weeds as a natural and agricultural weed (Randall, 2012).