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Crotalaria pallida
Also called Smooth Crotalaria, Salts Rattlebox, Striped Crotalaria, Moreton Island Rattlepod, Streaked Rattlepod, Smooth Rattlepod
In Singapore: Rattlebox (Naturalised in Singapore)
Crotalaria pallida is a short-lived shrub or perennial herb in the pea family, grown as a ground cover and green manure crop. It thrives in warm, seasonally dry tropical conditions.
Crotalaria pallida, commonly known as the smooth crotalaria, is a species of flowering plant within the family Fabaceae.
Crotalaria pallida is found in Indonesia, Sudan, United States (Florida, Puerto Rico), Brazil, India, and Bangladesh
The plant is grown as a ground cover and a green manure crop, especially in the inter-rows of rubber trees and coconut palms. Flowers are eaten as a vegetable in Cambodia, where the seeds are roasted and grounded for use as a sort of coffee beverage. The roots are sometimes chewed with betel nuts in Vietnam. In traditional medicine, the plant is used to treat urinary problems and fever, a poultice of the roots is applied to swelling of joints and an extract of the leaves is taken to expel intestinal worms.
Birdflower · Sunn hemp · Birdflower · Longbeak rattlebox · Rattleweed · Showy rattlebox
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Crotalaria pallida by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
