A velvety-leaved shrub of the pea family, common across savanna and bushland in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Desmodium velutinum (family Fabaceae) is a woody herb, subshrub or shrub 0.5 to 3 metres tall, with reddish stems densely covered in short, pale rusty hairs when young. Its leaves usually have a single large leaflet, 2.5 to 19 cm long, ovate to almost round, rough-haired above and velvety beneath, which gives the plant its name (velutinum, "velvety"). The pink, purple, violet or blue pea-flowers grow in clusters on dense spikes up to 30 cm long. The pods, 1 to 2.5 cm long, are made of two to seven segments covered with hooked hairs; they break apart easily and stick to the fur of grazing animals. In the northern Guinea and Sudan savanna zones it flowers and fruits from October to February.
It is widespread in the tropics of Africa and Asia up to about 1,500 metres. In Africa it grows at forest edges, in deciduous woodland, in wooded and open grassland, in damp places in gallery forest and often in shade in savanna, on soils from laterite and clay to sand and gravel. It prefers a humid climate but tolerates a dry season of up to five months, very acid to alkaline soils and low fertility. It is very palatable to livestock: trials in Nigeria found that cattle preferred it to several other browse plants, including leucaena, and its leaves and young stems contain over 20 per cent crude protein, so it is considered one of the most promising species for browse farms. Earlier reports say it was once cultivated in Benin as a medicinal and fetish plant, and in Papua New Guinea the leaves are chewed with salt to treat diarrhoea.
Sources: PROTA4U database (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa), which compiles records from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de Genève, FAO EcoCrop and other botanical databases.
Leaves and roots are used across West Africa for diarrhoea, dysentery, wounds, and menstrual complaints.
Browsed by livestock as fodder.
A wild bushland shrub, not commonly cultivated.