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Macropsychanthus megacarpus
Donkey Eyes is a tropical climbing vine of wet rainforests in the pea family, grown mainly as a botanical curiosity or in warm greenhouses for its large seeds and vine habit. It needs warm, humid, bright conditions and a sturdy support to climb.
Macropsychanthus megacarpus (syn. Dioclea megacarpa) is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to Central America, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, northern Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Windward Islands. A climber, it is typically found in wet tropical rainforests. Its seeds contain large amounts of the non-proteinogenic amino acid L-canavanine, which replaces the essential arginine producing abnormal proteins and enzymes and resulting in severe malnutrition to insect pests and other herbivores.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Macropsychanthus megacarpus 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.
