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Desmanthus
Also called Bundleflowers
Desmanthus, or bundleflower, is a genus of about 24 herbs and shrubs in the pea family, mostly from the Americas. Commonly grown members are used as pasture legumes and fodder, and they fold their leaves at night.
Desmanthus is a genus of flowering plants in the mimosoid clade of the subfamily Caesalpinioideae of the pea family, Fabaceae. The name is derived from the Greek words δεσμός (desmos), meaning "bundle", and ἄνθος (anthos), meaning "flower". It contains about 24 species of herbs and shrubs that are sometimes described as being suffruticose and have bipinnate leaves. Desmanthus is closely related to Leucaena and in appearance is similar to Neptunia. Like Mimosa and Neptunia, Desmanthus species fold their leaves in the evening. They are native to Mexico and North, Central and South America. Members of the genus are commonly known as bundleflowers. Donkey beans is another common name and originated in Central America, where Desmanthus species are highly regarded as fodder for these domestic draught animals.
The root-bark of D. illinoensis, which accounts for half of the total weight of the root system, is reported to contain anywhere from 0 to 0.34% DMT and 0.11% N-Methyltryptamine. Alkaloid content is highly variable in this species.
Likewise, root bark of Desmanthus leptolobus has been found to contain N,N-DMT and related tryptamines. While its only reported quantitative analysis was 0.14% (Appleseed), all instances of co-occurrence with D. illinoensis showed it to be noticeably stronger than D. illinoensis, according to co-thin layer chromatography of the root bark.
During the 1990s in Australia, three species of Desmanthus were released as pasture legumes and many other accessions are being evaluated as pasture species for clay soils. The three old released cultivars are:
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Desmanthus 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.
