''Aeschynomene americana'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae (legume) known by many common names, including shyleaf,''Aeschynomene americana''.
USDA Plants Profile. forage aeschynomene,Thro, A. M., et al. (1990)
Weed potential of the forage legume Aeschynomene (''Aeschynomene americana'') in rice (''Oryza sativa'') and soybeans (''Glycine max'').
''Weed Technology'' 4(2) 284-90. American joint vetch (United States and Australia), thornless mimosa (Sri Lanka), bastard sensitive plant (Jamaica), ''pega pega'', ''pega ropa'', ''antejuela'', ''ronte'', ''cujicillo'', and ''dormilonga'' (Latin America).
FAO. It is native to Central America, parts of South America, the West Indies, and Florida. It is now found in the US, in Australia and in South-East Asia.Heuzé V., Thiollet H., Tran G., Salgado P., Lebas F., 2018. American jointvetch (Aeschynomene americana). Feedipedia, a programme by INRA, CIRAD, AFZ and FAO. https://www.feedipedia.org/node/569 Last updated on January 30, 2018, 14:16 This plant is an annual or perennial herb growing up to 2 meters tall. The leaves are up to 7 centimeters long and have several pairs of linear to oblong leaflets. The sensitive leaves fold up when touched. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

is a raceme of flowers each up to a centimeter long. The flowers range in color from white to pinkish, orange, or purplish. The fruit is a curved legume pod up to 4 centimeters long made up of several jointed units, each unit containing a seed. This species is widely used as a green manure or pasture plant throughout the tropical world.Zhang, J. (1998)
Variation and allometry of seed weight in ''Aeschynomene americana''.
''Annals of Botany'' 82 843-47. It is grazed by

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

and may be cut for

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticat ...

.''Aeschynomene americana''.
USDA NRCS Plant Fact Sheet. Cattle readily eat the plant and spread the seeds on their coats and in manure. Available

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

s include 'Glenn'. In the wild it is generally a

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

plant, easily taking hold in wet places such as drainage ditches. It is grazed by deers, and the seeds are eaten by wild birds.

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americana Americana may refer to: *Americana (music), a genre or style of American music *Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...

Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Dalbergieae-stub