Mucuna bracteata

Mucuna bracteata DC. (syn: Carpopogon bracteatum Roxb.; Mucuna brevipes Craib; Mucuna exserta C.E.C.Fisch.; Mucuna venulosa (Piper) Merr. & F.P.Metcalf; Stizolobium venulosum Piper);

Andaman Is (N); Bangladesh (N); China (N) ; Yunnan ; Hainan (N) ; India (N); Arunachal Pradesh ; Assam; Bihar; Manipur; Meghalaya ; Mizoram ; Sikkim ; Tripura; West Bengal ; Laos (N) ; Myanmar (N) ; Thailand (N) ; Vietnam (N) as per ILDIS;

Common name: East-Himalayan Mucuna • Assamese: বান্দৰ কেকোঁৱা Bandor-kekua • Malayalam: Thottapayar

Climbing shrubs; young parts grey pubescent. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate, up to 25 cm long; leaflets 6.5-15 x 5-12 cm, laterals obliquely ovate or deltoid, terminal ovate-rhomboid, acute or subacute, base rounded, truncate, glabrous or glabrescent above, adpressed pubescent beneath. Racemes up to 16 cm long; flowers blackish purple, 3.5-4.5 cm long; bracts ovate extending to the peduncle. Calyx-tube campanulate; two upper teeth quite connate; lowest longer than the middle ones. Petals much exserted; standard not more than half as long as the rostrate keel, which usually a little exceeds the wings. Stamens diadelphous; anthers dimorphous. Ovary sessile, many-ovuled; style incurved, beardless; stigma capitate. Pods 8-10 x 1.5-2.5 cm, grayish-brown, tomentose, hairs itching; seeds 4 or 5.

Flowering and fruiting: January-April

Grown as cover crop in rubber plantations

India and Myanmar

(Attributions- Dr. N Sasidharan (Dr. B P Pal Fellow), Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi from India Biodiversity Portal)