''Calopogonium'' is a genus of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
s in the
legume
A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock f ...
family,
. It belongs to the subfamily
Faboideae.
''Calopogunium mucunoides'' is a vine that was introduced into Australia as a pasture legume. It has become naturalized in disturbed sites, waste areas and crops along roadsides and waterways and on the edges of rainforests in the wetter tropical regions of Northern Australia. It is most common in the Darwin region and in surrounding bush land and has also become a weed in Kakadu National Park. In these areas, populations are extending rapidly and it has been observed to form dense mats that smother native vegetarian.
Vigorous, creeping and twining, hairy herb forming a tangled mass of foliage 30 to 40 cm deep. Stems succulent, covered with long brown hairs, creeping in lower part; root at nodes which come in contact with the soil; upper part of stem becomes twining. Leaves trifoliate; leaflets hairy on both surfaces, smaller than those of Pueraria phaseoloides; terminal leaflet broadly ovate to ovate-rhomboid, lateral ones are obliquely broadly ovate, about to 4 to 5 cm long and a little less in width. Stipules small and triangular; small flowers borne in short axillary racemes of four to eight to 12 on hairy peduncles. Flowers blue with greenish-yellow blotch. Pods linear, compressed, 2.5 to 4 cm long, yellowish brown, densely covered with long erect hairs, four- to eight-seeded.
References
External links
Phaseoleae
Fabaceae genera
{{Phaseoleae-stub