Sesbania pea, yellow pea bush
Sesbania cannabina, Fam. Fabaceae
Erect annual sub-shrub 1-3m tall. Young stems and leaves with spreading hairs, becoming glabrous as they mature. Stems green or reddish-purple in colour.
| Weed Category: |
Other invasive plants Invasive plants that are not prohibited or restricted invasive plants, but are known to spread readily and cause negative impacts, within the region.
|
| Weed: | Yes |
| Form or habit: | Shrub |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Leaf: | Compound Alternate Alternate pinnate, 50-200mm long, with 12-30 (sometimes up to 45) pairs of oblong leaflets, 5-20 x 1.5-4mm, with a small point on the rounded tip. |
| Flower conspicuous: | Conspicuous |
| Flower colour: |
Yellow, Orange |
| Flower description: | Pea shaped, yellow to orange-yellow with dark streaks or spots on the back, 10-15mm long, borne on a 1-8 flowered pendulous axillary raceme up to 60mm long. |
| Fruit conspicuous: | Conspicuous |
| Fruit colour: |
Brown |
| Fruit: | Dry |
| Fruit description: | Long slender brown pods, 120-200 x 2.5-4mm, almost straight with a point at the tip and curving near the base. Each pod contains numerous smooth almost cylindrical dark-green to brown seeds, 3-4mm long. |
| Habitat: | |
| Distribution | |
| Food source for: | |
| Toxicity: | No toxicity known |
| Origin: | Australia and overseas |
| Notes: | Spread by: water and contaminated soil. Invades/threats: disturbed and waste land along roadsides and in cultivated fields; especially in seasonally wet areas. Notes: a widespread local native that can be a problem weed of agriculture. Prefers heavy soils. Seeds have a long viability and build up in the soil seed bank resulting in prolific germination during optimum conditions. Grazed when very young, but becomes less palatable with age. It is an effective nitrogen fixing legume. Environmental weed. |
| Information sources: | Mackay Regional Pest Management Group (2018) Weeds of the Mackay Whitsunday Region Second Edition. |
