Bakful
Bakful/Vegetable Hummingbird
Scientific name: Sesbania grandifloraL.
Synonyms: Aeschynomene grandiflora, Agati grandiflora
English name: Not known.
Local names: Bakful, Agusti.
Taxonomic Position According to Cronquist (1981)
| Kingdom | : Plantae |
| Division | : Magnoliophyta |
| Class | :Magnoliopsida |
| Subclass | : Rosidae |
| Order | : Fabales |
| Family | : Fabacaeae |
| Genus | : Crotolaria |
| Species | : C. juncea |
Botanical Description
A small, fast growing, deciduous, soft wooded tree, up to 10 m tall, bark light to dark brown, fissured in old tree. Leaves paripinnate, 13- 30 cm long, leaflets 20-60, oblong, glabrous, stipels deciduous, minute, l.5-2.8 cm long. Inflorescence an axillary raceme, 2-4 flowered. Flowers large. Calyx c 2.5 cm long, glabrous, 2-lipped. Corolla 8- 10 cm long, white or tinged with red. Fruit a pod, 30-50 cm long, falcate, firm, not torulose, suture much thickened. Seeds many.
Economic Importance:
The Bowers and young pods are used as vegetable. Leaves are used as good fodder. The leaf is tonic, antipyretic, cures night blindness and biliousness. Root paste is applied to rheumatism, root juice mixed with honey is an expectorant used in catarrh. The fruit is bitter, acrid, laxative, cures fever, and bronchitis.