Adesmia bicolor (Poiret) De Candolle

Leguminosae

Synonyms

• Hedysarum bicolorum Poiret (1804)
• Adesmia pendula (Poiret) De Candolle (1825)
• Adesmia glabriuscula Vogel (1836)
• Adesmia radicans (Clos) Kuntze (1891)

Common names:

Adesmia

Description:

Perennial, 15-30 cm high; abundant long stems or stolons over 2 m, deep rooted, excellent quality forage, good for dune fixation.

Distribution:

Broad distribution in temperate South America: Central-Eastern Argentina down to Patagonia, South Brazil, Central Chile, Uruguay.

Centre of origin:

Argentinian Chaco.

Habitat:

On gentle slopes, from sea level up to 2000 masl. Present in natural meadows on a variety of soils, responds to P fertilization; competes well with aggressive grasses; flowers in early spring, seeds germinate in winter; with good water availability grows until mid-summer.

Use:

Excellent forage, productive, desired by cattle, indefinite cycle, preferably winter, disappears in hot dry summers; forage with 15.6 % crude protein, digestibility in vitro 78 %; acid detergent fibre 16 %. Sought by sheep, tolerates heavy grazing; prefers temperate environments, but resists dry weather and light frosts.

Breeding work:

Some breeding/improvement work done unsuccessfully due to erratic seed germinability and irregular growth.

Nodulation & N fixation:

Abundantly nodulated by fast growing Rhizobium; high N fixation capacity.

Main References:

Burkart, A. (1952), (1966), (1987) ; Coll, J. & Zarza, A. (1992); Guedes, M.E. & Frioni, L. (1992); Izaguirre, P. & Beyhaut, R. (1998); Millot, J.C. et al., (1987); Rosengurtt, B. (1943), (1946)