Sesbania grandiflora is a fast-growing tree. The leaves are regular and rounded and the flowers white, red or pink. The fruits look like flat, long, thin green beans. The tree thrives under full exposure to sunshine and is extremely frost sensitive.
It is a small soft wooded tree up to 5–25 m (16–82 ft) tall. Leaves are 15–30 cm (6–12 in) long, with leaflets in 10–20 pairs or more and an odd one. Flowers are oblong, 1.5–10 cm (1–4 in) long in lax, with two to four flower
racemes. The
calyx is campanulate and shallowly two-lipped. Pods are slender, falcate or straight, and 30–45 cm (12–18 in) long, with a thick suture and approximately 30 seeds 8 mm (0.3 in) in size.
In the
Thai language, the flowers are called ดอกแค (dok khae) and are used in the cuisine both cooked in curries, such as kaeng som and kaeng khae,[7] and raw or blanched with nam phrik.[8]
Flower nutrition
S. grandiflora flowers are 92% water, 7%
carbohydrates, 1%
protein, and contain no
fat.[9] In a reference amount of 100 grams (3.5 oz), the flowers supply 27
calories, and are a rich source of
vitamin C (88% of the
Daily Value, DV) and
folate (26% DV).[9]
Gallery
Steamed Sesbania grandiflora flowers (bottom), among other vegetables, in a
Thai dish
^USDA, NRCS (n.d.).
"Sesbania grandiflora". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
^Cucio, Ardy L.; Aragones, Julie Ann A.
Katuray Production Guide(PDF). Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, Republic of the Philippines. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
^Kirtikar K. R. & B. D. Basu, Indian Medicinal Plants Vol-I, International Book Distributor & Publisher, Dehradun, Edition 2005, bks pp. 735–736
^Heering, J.H. & R.C. Gutteridge. 1992.
Sesbania grandiflora (L.) Poir.Archived 2016-03-04 at the
Wayback Machine [Internet] Record from Proseabase. L.'t Mannetje and R.M. Jones. (Editors). Forages.: Plant Resources of South-East Asia 4: 196-198. PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Accessed from Internet: Feb 5, 2013