Thursday, April 18, 2013

Drought tolerant weed in Los Banos



I came across this weed "Creeping indigo" in IRRI compound. The entire ground is brown with the dried weeds except for patches of green, in fact very green, weeds. These are the creeping indigo weeds. These weeds survive long spell of drought and high temperature. They have good seed set. They have pods of legumes [beware, children may be tempted to taste them]. Flowers are pink and light red. They creep on ground with roots coming from the nods. The main plant has deep roots.

Scientific name: Indigofera spicata  

 I. spicata contains 2.66 mg 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NPA)/g dry matter and 1.5 mg indospicine/g dry matter. Ponies which feed on i spicata had developed developed ataxia, paresis, depression, muscle fasciculations, dysphagia, ptyalism and halitosis. [Reference]