小槐花 xiao huai hua

Hedysarum caudatum Thunberg in Murray, Syst. Veg., ed. 14, 675. 1784; Catenaria caudata (Thunberg) Schindler; C. laburnifolia (Poiret) Bentham; Desmodium caudatum (Thun­berg) Candolle; D. laburnifolium (Poiret) Candolle; H. laburni­folium Poiret.

Shrubs or subshrubs, erect, 1-2 m tall, much branched. Leaves 3-foliolate; petiole 1.5-4 cm, often very narrowly winged; terminal leaflet blade lanceolate or oblong, 5-9 × 1.5-2.5 cm, lateral ones smaller, abaxially apparently glaucous and more densely hairy on raised veins, adaxially lucid and glabres­cent, base cuneate, apex acuminate or acute. Racemes terminal or axillary, 5-30 cm; rachis densely pubescent intermixed with minute uncinate and appressed or spreading longer hairs, 2-flowered at each node. Pedicel 3-4 mm. Calyx 3.5-4 mm, up­per 2 lobes united for 3/4 length or more. Corolla green-white or yellow-white; standard elliptic, shortly clawed; wings nar­rowly oblong, clawed; keel oblong, clawed. Ovary densely ap­pressed pilose on both sutures. Legume linear, flat, 5-7 cm, sessile, 4-8-jointed; articles narrowly ellipsoidal, 9-12 × ca. 3 mm, with dense, short, brown, uncinate hairs. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Sep-Nov. 2n = 22*.

Mountain slopes, roadsides, grasslands, streamsides, forest mar­gins; 100-1000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hu­bei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhe­jiang [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myan­mar, Sri Lanka, Vietnam].

The roots and leaves are used as a pesticide and medicinally as a diuretic.