Aeschynomene indica L. (Indian jointvetch)

Pl. 388 f; Map 1706

Stems 1–2 m tall, erect, often stout toward the base and pithy, the upper portion glabrous or sparsely and finely hairy. Leaves with 40–66 leaflets, the petiole 3–8 mm long, the rachis 4–9 cm long, the petiole and rachis pubescent with pustular-based gland-tipped, yellowish hairs. Stipules 10–14 mm long, 2–3 mm wide. Leaflets 5–10 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide. Inflorescences usually on reduced lateral branches with few to several reduced pinnately compound leaves, appearing as branched, lax, racemose clusters 3–5 cm long, the inflorescence stalk 1–2 cm long, densely pubescent with pustular-based, gland-tipped, yellowish hairs, the bract subtending each flower 2–4 mm long, lanceolate, entire to minutely and indistinctly toothed, shed early, the flower stalk 3–4 mm long. Calyces with the tube 0.8–1.0 mm long; the upper lip 4–5 mm long, 2-toothed apically; the lower lip 4–5 mm long, shallowly 3-toothed apically. Corollas yellow, often reddish-tinged along nerves; the banner 6–8 mm long, 4.5–5.5 mm wide; the wings 6–7 mm long, 2.5–3.0 mm wide; the keel 7–8 mm long. Filaments 6–8 mm long, the tube split to about the midpoint. Ovary 4–5 mm long, the style 1.5–2.0 mm long. Fruits 3.5–4.5 cm long, 4–5 mm wide, the stalk 3–6 mm long, the surfaces at maturity sparsely pustular-hairy, smooth or occasionally with longitudinal wrinkles at maturity, with medial lines of minute, pustular-based, warty projections to 0.2 mm long, dehiscent into into 5–9 segments, these 4–5 mm long, 4–5 mm wide. Seeds 3–4 mm long, 2–3 mm wide, olive brown. 2n=40. July–September.

Introduced, scattered in the Mississippi Lowlands Division (native of the New World Tropics; introduced in the southeastern U.S. north to Missouri and Virginia; also Asia, Africa, Australia). Margins of sloughs and oxbows; also ditches, rice fields, and roadsides.

Aeschynomene indica was first reported for Missouri by Dunn and Knauer (1975) from dispersed segments of loments that were collected in 1973 in the Stoddard County portion of Mingo National Wildlife Refuge and subsequently grown to maturity in a greenhouse at the University of Missouri.