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Galega orientalis
Eastern goat's rue is a tall, clump-forming perennial legume from the Caucasus, grown mainly as forage for livestock and valued by beekeepers for its nectar. It is best given full sun and open, well-drained ground.
Galega orientalis is a species of flowering plant in the Fabaceae, the legume family. It is known commonly as fodder galega and eastern galega. It is cultivated as a fodder and forage for livestock.
This species is native to the Caucasus. Its native range includes parts of Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. It has been introduced to many other regions for use in agriculture.
The flowers are pollinated by bees. It produces good quantities of nectar and pollen. It makes a good honey plant.
This plant is grown to feed livestock. Its potential value as a fodder was first suggested in 1908, and trials began near Moscow in the 1920s. It is productive, persistent, and nutritious, with high protein. It contains high levels of carotene, minerals, and vitamins, especially vitamin C. It produces many crops of vegetation, its rhizome continuing to produce stems as it grows. It can be cut down repeatedly and taken for hay and silage, and the stubble can be grazed. The whole plant is not generally suitable for grazing, though. It works well as a companion to a non-competitive grass such as timothy or fescue. In cold northern regions it is valuable because it produces vegetation earlier in the spring and continues later in the fall than some other forages. It is low in toxic alkaloid concentration, making it useful as feed when its alkaloid-rich close relative Galega officinalis is not.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Galega orientalis 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.
