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Fabaceae FAMILY

Eriosema psoraloides

Eriosema psoraloides

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

(leaf) Phytochemistry: fish-poisons[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitShrub
Growth—

Found in the wild on loamy and sandy-loam soils[2]. Grows wild on sandy and black soils, usually in marshy or damp places[3]. Plants growing by water are often in water for periods when the water level rises[3]. This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria; these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby[4].

Propagation

Like many species within the family Fabaceae, once they have ripened and dried the seeds of this species may benefit from scarification before sowing in order to speed up and improve germination. This can usually be done by pouring a small amount of nearly boiling water on the seeds (being careful not to cook them!) and then soaking them for 12 - 24 hours in warm water. By this time they should have imbibed moisture and swollen - if they have not, then carefully make a nick in the seedcoat (being careful not to damage the embryo) and soak for a further 12 hours before sowing[PFAF]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Eriosema+psoraloides>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [1]The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. — Burkil. H. M. · Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. · 1985 - 2004 ↩︎Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/
  2. [2]Grassland Species - Profiles — http://www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPC/doc/Gbase/Default.htm ↩︎Terse information on over 650 species of plants that grow in grassland, including trees, shrubs and perennial plants as well as grasses. Gives a brief description of the plant, its range and habitat and some of its uses.
  3. [3]Flora Zambesiaca — http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html ↩︎An excellent online flora of plants from the Zambezi River basin. It lists a number of the plant uses as well as the habitats and botanical descriptions of the plants.
  4. [4]The Leguminosae; A Source Book of Characteristics, Uses and Nodulation — Allen O.N.; Allen E.K. · University of Wisconsin · 1981 · ISBN 0-333-32221-5 ↩︎An amazing and comprehensive work, giving a brief guide to the many genera of the family Fabaceae and also the principle uses of the genus.
  5. [5]Cataloge of African Plants Collected by Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch in 1853 - 1861 — Hiern. W.P. · Longmans & Co.; London. · 1898 · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org ↩︎In 6 volumes, it gives botanical descriptions and some uses of the plants. It can be downloaded from the Internet.
  6. [6]Plants of Possible Insecticidal Value - A Review of the Literature up to 1941 — McIndoo N.E. · USDA; Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine · 1945 ↩︎Information on the insecticidal properties (or not) of almost 1,200 species of plant. Rather dated but still with information hard to obtain elsewhere. It can be downloaded from the Intenet
  7. [7]Antimicrobial Activity of Tanzanian Chewing Sticks Against Oral Pathogenic Microbes — Maryam N. Khan, Olipa Ngassapa & Mecky I.N. Matee · 2000 · https://doi.org/10.1076/1388-0209(200007)3831-SFT235 ↩︎
  8. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎