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Stylosanthes fruticosa
Also called Wild Lucerne
Shrubby pencilflower is a drought-tolerant, low perennial legume grown mainly as forage and cover crop in warm, dry tropical areas. It thrives in full sun and poor, acid soils, and needs very little water once established.
Stylosanthes fruticosa (syn. Arachis fruticosa), the African stylo, wild lucerne or shrubby pencil‑flower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is native to Cape Verde, sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, the Arabian Peninsula, India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, and has been introduced to Hawaii. Relished by livestock, it can survive light shade, acid soils and even light frosts. It grows from sea level to 2,000 m (6,600 ft) on as little as 300 mm (12 in) of rain per year.
Stylo · Cheesytoes · Townsville stylo · Pencilflower · Pencilflower
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Stylosanthes fruticosa 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.
