3013

11: Auxiliary plants

Flemingia macrophylla (Willd.) Merrill

Philip. Journ. Sci. 5: 130 (1910).

LEGUMINOSAE - PAPILIONOIDEAE

2n = 22

Flemingia congesta Roxb. ex Ait.f. (1812), Flemingia latifolia Benth. (1852), Moghania macrophylla (Willd.) Kuntze (1891).

Indonesia: apa-apa (Javanese), hahapaan (Sundanese), pok-kepokan (Madura). Malaysia: serengan jantan, beringan. Philippines: laclay-guinan (Tagalog), gewawini (Ifugao), malabalatong (Pampanga). Laos: thwàx h'è: h'üad, thwàx h'üad (Vientiane), h'ôm sa:m müang (Xieng Khouang). Thailand: mahae-nok (northern), khamin-nang, khamin-ling (central). Vietnam: t[os]p m[ow] l[as]to, c[aa]y dau ma (Vinh Phu), cai duoi chon (Thuan Hai).

Flemingia macrophylla originated in and is widely distributed in South-East Asia and in India, Sri Lanka, southern China and Taiwan. It has been introduced and naturalized in Papua New Guinea, East, Central and West Africa and is cultivated in tropical America.

Flemingia macrophylla is grown in hedges and provides mulch for associated food crops grown in alley-cropping systems, and fuelwood as a valuable by-product. As a green manure it is less effective. It is grown on terraces to control soil erosion. In Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, West Africa and Madagascar the plant is used as a cover crop and as a shade crop in young plantations of cocoa, coffee, banana and rubber, while in Ivory Coast, it is used in pineapple plantations to reduce nematode infestation and as green manure and mulch. In Costa Rica, it is grown as an understorey in plantations of Honduras pine (Pinus caribaea Morelet var. hondurensis Barrett & Golfari). Flemingia macrophylla is grown as a forage crop and is especially important as a dry season forage e.g. in the savanna zone of Nigeria. It is one of the sources of the Arab dye called 'waras' or 'warrus'. 'Waras' is a coarse purple or orange-brown powder, consisting of the glandular hairs rubbed from dry Flemingia fruits, capable of dying silk but not wool or cotton; the active compound is called flemingin. Flemingia macrophylla is a minor host of the Indian and Chinese lac insects. In Indonesia and Malaysia the leaves are used medicinally.

The leaves contain per 100 g dry matter: N 2.3—3.8 g, P 0.2—0.25 g, K 1.0—1.4 g, Ca 0.55—0.75 g, and Mg 0.2—0.3 g. The lignin content of the leaves is high, the content of tannic acid fairly low (17.2 g and 2.4 g per 100 g dry matter, respectively). Palatability of the leaves is rather poor and in vitro digestibility (40%) is much lower than that of Leucaena leucocephala (Lamk) de Wit. The leaves decompose slowly, making them more useful as mulch material than as green manure. Under humid tropical conditions, about 50% of an initial quantity of 4 t/ha of dry matter decomposed in 53 days, while in another experiment only 60% of a mulch layer was decomposed after 120 days. The stem contains flavonoid compounds. The weight of 1000 seeds is 15—20 g.

Woody, deep-rooting, tussock-forming shrub, 1—4 m tall. Young branches greenish, ribbed, triangular in section, silky. Old stems brown, almost round in section. Leaves digitately trifoliolate; stipules lanceolate, 1—1.5 cm long, covered with silky hairs, early caducous; petiole up to 10 cm long, narrowly channelled, slightly winged; leaflets elliptical-lanceolate, 6—16 cm x 4—7 cm, papery, dark green, base rounded, veins covered with silky hairs, apex rounded to acuminate. Inflorescence a dense axillary raceme, subspiciform, sessile, 2.5—10 cm long, silky; bracts ovate, 3—6 mm long; calyx 6—13 mm long, pale velutinous, green, with 5 lanceolate lobes; corolla with greenish elliptical standard and distinct parallel red veins, wings narrow and much shorter than the keel, light purple at the apex. Pod oblong, inflated, 8—15 mm x 5 mm, covered with fine glandular hairs, dehiscent, dark brown, 2-seeded. Seed globular, 2—3 mm in diameter, shiny black.
Flemingia macrophylla forms root nodules and fixes atmospheric nitrogen in symbiosis with Bradyrhizobium strains. Root nodules are often difficult to locate, partly because they are very small.

Flemingia macrophylla can be found from sea level up to 2000 m altitude, within a wide range of rainfall patterns, from sub-humid to per-humid (1100—2850 mm/year). It can tolerate fairly long dry spells and is capable of surviving on very poorly drained soils with waterlogging. Its natural habitat is along watercourses, both on clay and lateritic soils, as well as under drier conditions such as in fields infested with Imperata cylindrica (L.) Raeuschel. It tolerates shade and poor, acid soils with a high content of soluble aluminium.

Flemingia macrophylla is propagated by seed. Scarification of the seed is usually required to increase the germination percentage. A good weed-free seed-bed should be prepared, and the necessary fertilizers for a particular soil should be worked in prior to sowing, or banded under the row of seed. When planting in a new area, seed should be inoculated with a suitable strain of Bradyrhizobium such as CIAT 4203 or 4215. Planting density varies according to the projected use of the stand. In Indonesia, seed is often sown in rows 90 cm apart with 3—4 seeds planted every 60 cm along the row; in coconut plantations on sloping land, sowing in a dense line along the edges of terraces is recommended. Good weed control is required during the first six months after sowing, since the plants are relatively slow to establish. Once established, they require little attention.
The interaction between Flemingia macrophylla hedgerows and associated crops is not fully understood. In an alley cropping experiment in Nigeria, Flemingia macrophylla hedgerows significantly increased the yield of the associated maize crop. This can be attributed only partly to the the effect of mulching or added nutrients: removing the prunings or leaving them on the soil surface caused only small and inconsistent differences in maize yield. However, the combined effect of mulching and added nitrogen fertilizer was very pronounced and stronger than with hedgerows of Senna siamea (Lamk) Irwin & Barneby or Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Kunth ex Walp. Mulching at a rate of 3 t/ha effectively controls the germination of weed seeds for about 3 months.
Under tropical, humid, lowland conditions in the Ivory Coast, with 10 000 plants/ha and 9 regrowth cycles of 3 months each, an average annual production of 12 t/ha of leaf dry matter has been achieved, although typical yields in South-East Asia may be closer to 8 t/ha. Plants can be cut more frequently than every 3 months, but preferably not at intervals of less than 40 days. They will survive under this cutting regime for many years.
Insect pests such as the fly Agromyza sp. reduce seed production by laying eggs in green pods. In Malaysia, spraying with Endrex (1:800) once every two weeks after flowering has begun gives effective control.

Germplasm collections are maintained at the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT, Cali, Colombia), the Research Institute for Animal Production (Ciawi, Bogor, Indonesia), Australian Tropical Forage Genetic Resource Centre (ATFGRC, CSIRO, Canberra, Australia), and the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI, Bangkok, Thailand).

Flemingia macrophylla has excellent coppicing capacity and is promising when used in hedges to provide mulch to associated food crops in alley cropping and forage. As a green manure and feed Flemingia macrophylla is inferior to species such as Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium, since its leaves decompose slowly and are less easily digested. Owing to its slow decomposition, the mulch has long-term effects in weed control, moisture conservation and reduction of soil temperature. Furthermore, Flemingia macrophylla is useful as a cover crop in perennial plantations, as a shelter belt in erosion control, and in planted fallows for soil improvement. Improvement of the crop's early development and its integration into alley-cropping systems and planted fallows deserve priority in research.

Asare, E.O., 1985. Effect of frequency and height of defoliation on forage yield and crude protein content of Flemingia macrophylla (flemingia). In: Proceedings of the XV International Grasslands Congress, August 24-31, 1985, Kyoto, Japan. Science Council of Japan and Japanese Society of Grassland Science, Nishihasuno, Japan. pp. 164-165.
Budelman, A., 1988. Leaf dry matter productivity of three selected perennial leguminous species in humid tropical Ivory Coast. Agroforestry Systems 7: 47-62.
Budelman, A., 1991. Woody species in auxiliary roles: live stakes in yam cultivation. Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 151 pp.
Bourgoing, R., 1990. Choice of cover crop and planting method for hybrid coconut growing on smallholdings. Oléagineux 45: 27-28.
Gutteridge, R.C., 1994. Other species of multipurpose forage. In: Gutteridge, R.C. & Shelton, H.M. (Editors): Forage tree legumes in tropical agriculture. CAB International, Wallingford, United Kingdom. pp. 97-118.
Kachaka, S., Vanlauwe, B. & Merckx, R., 1993. Decomposition and nitrogen mineralization of prunings of different quality. In: Mulongoy, K. & Merckx, R. (Editors): Soil organic matter dynamics and sustainability of tropical agriculture. Proceedings of an International Symposium held in Leuven, Belgium, 4-6 November 1991. John Willey, Chichester, United Kingdom. pp. 199-208.
Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia, 1975. Species and varieties of Flemingia in Malaya. Planters Bulletin 61: 78-85.
Schultze-Kraft, R., 1985. Development of an international collection of tropical germplasm for acid soils. In: Proceedings of the XV International Grasslands Congress, August 24-31, Kyoto, Japan. Science Council of Japan and Japanese Society of Grassland Science, Nishihasuno, Japan. pp. 1-3.
Skerman, P.J., Cameron, D.O. & Riveros, F., 1988. Tropical forage legumes. 2nd Edition. FAO Plant Production and Plant Protection Series No 2. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. pp. 561-562.

A. Budelman & M.E. Siregar

Budelman, A. & Siregar, M.E., 1997. Flemingia macrophylla (Willd.) Merrill. In: Faridah Hanum, I & van der Maesen, L.J.G. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 11: Auxiliary plants. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea