Occurrence (Special Areas) :
Indroda Park, Sarita Udyan, Van Chetana Kendra, Aranya Van
About Tephrosia villosa Plant :
Habit : An erect herb, gregarious with stems and branches densely hairy with white or greyish appressed hairs.
Leaves :
Imparipinnate, stipulate, stipules lanceolate, strongly nerved, generally deflexed, more or less hairy on the back and edges.
Leaflets about 15, pale green, more or less hairy above, more densely so beneath, but not argenteo-canescent, oblanceolate, base cuneate, apex rounded and mucronate, petiole of the leaf beneath the lower pair of leaflets, petiolules of lateral leaflets 1-1.5mm long, of the terminal leaflet 3 mm long.
Inflorescence : Racemes
Flowers :
Showy, deep red, the upper flowers dense, the lower one very lax, bracteate, bracts linear-subulate, plumose, persistent.
Calyx very hairy outside, the teeth about three times as long as the calyx, silky on the standard outside.
Style glabrous, stigma penicillate.
Fruit :
Pods up to 3 cm long, 6-8 mm broad, deflexed, falcately curved, velvety all over.
Seeds 6-8.
Flowering and Fruiting Time : August - October
Significance : The juice of the leaves is given in dropsy.
