Weed Herbarium

Vatshola

Common Name: Pith Plant
Scientific Name: Aeschynomene aspera L.
Family Name: Fabaceae
Type: Broadleaf

Identification Notes

EPPO Code

AESAS

Life Cycle

Morphology

Perennial shrub, up to 3 m tall. Stem glabrous, soft, pith white spongy. Leaf sessile or subsessile, leaflets 61-101, alternate or opposite, 3-13 mm long, 1.5-3 mm broad, linear, oblong, obtuse, apiculate, glabrous. Stipules 1.2-1.3 cm long, lanceolate, base auriculate; deciduous. Inflorescence a 2-7-flowered, axillary raceme. Peduncle and pedicel hairy. Bracts 3-3.5 mm long. Calyx 9-10 mm long, hispid, bilabiate, upper lip rounded, the lower 3 lobed. Corolla 18-19 mm. Vexillum glabrous, keel pubescent externally. Fruit 5-7.5 cm long, 6-10 mm broad, 4-8 jointed, often indented on both sutures, echinulate on both surfaces.

Growing season

January - December

Germination period

Flowering period

July to November

Propagation

By seeds and stem

Habitat

Margins of wetlands, such as lagoons, tanks and lakes as well as in swampy grassland; at elevations up to 1,300 metres

Weed potential

Control measure

Cultural control : Control by hands. Biological control : Bacterial wilt is reported to affect biomass production in some areas. The leaf-eating larvae of the Lepidopterous species Eurema lecabe can became a problem when A. aspera is grown in the short-day season.

Recommended herbicide

Distribution

A. aspera is believed to have originated in sub-Saharan Africa between Senegal and Sudan. It is widely distributed in the lowlands of western, central, north-eastern and southern Africa. In 1986 it was introduced into the Philippines and since then has been grown experimentally across South and South-Earth Asia.

Medicinal properties

Young leaves and blooms are eaten in salad and applied topically as a poultice in traditional Cambodian medicine. During labor, the crushed young stalk and leaves are consumed orally as an anti-haemorrhagic. It has only recently been recognized that A. aspera may be used as a quick-growing nitrogen source for wet rice fields. It has been extensively utilized as a pre-rice green mature crop on experimental stations and in extension demonstration trials since the late 1980s. Farmers in South Earth Asia have so far only sporadically used it.

Department of Agronomy

Bangladesh Agricultural University