白灰毛豆 bai hui mao dou

Robinia candida (Candolle) Roxburgh.

Herbs, perennial, suffrutescent, 1-3.5 m tall. Stems ridged, grayish white tomentose, trichomes ca. 1 mm. Leaves 17-25-foliolate; rachis 15-25 cm, including petiole 1-3; leaflet blades oblong, 3-6 × 0.6-1.4 cm, abaxially densely sericeous, adaxi­ally glabrous, secondary veins 30-50 on each side of midvein. Pseudoracemes terminal or lateral, 15-20 cm. Pedicel ca. 1 cm, densely white villous. Flowers ca. 2 cm. Calyx ca. 5 × 5 mm; teeth equal, ca. 1 mm, apex rounded. Corolla white, rarely yel­low or pale pink; standard densely sericeous. Ovary tomentose, with numerous ovules. Legume linear, 8-10 cm × 7.5-8.5 mm, straight, brown tomentose with a mixture of long and short tri­chomes, apex truncate and with a straight ca. 1 cm beak. Seeds 10-15 per legume, olive-green with dark patches, ellipsoid, ca. 5 × 3.5 mm, smooth. Fl. Oct-Nov, fr. Dec. 2n = 22, 24.

Cultivated or escaped, grasslands, open places, slopes. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan [native to India; widely culti­vated and escaped elsewhere].

This species is grown as a green mulch.