Sesbania grandiflora

Sesbania grandiflora
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Fabales
Family:	Fabaceae
Genus:	Sesbania
Species:	S. grandiflora
Binomial name
Sesbania grandiflora (L.) Poiret

Steamed Sesbania grandiflora flowers (bottom), among other vegetables; Thai cuisine.

Flowers of S. grandiflora

Flowers of S. grandiflora. Red variant

Sesbania grandiflora (also known as agati, syn. Aeschynomene grandiflora) or hummingbird tree/scarlet wisteria is a small tree in the genus Sesbania.

Description

It is a fast-growing tree with a typical adult height of between 3 and 5 m. The leaves are regular and rounded and the flowers white and large, very characteristic. The fruits look like flat, long and thin green beans. The tree thrives under full exposure to sunshine and is extremely frost sensitive.

a twig of sesbania

Distribution

It is believed to have originated either in India or Southeast Asia and grows primarily in hot and humid tropical areas of the world.

Culinary uses

The flowers of S. grandiflora are eaten as a vegetable in Southeast Asia, like Laos, Thailand, Java in Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Ilocos Region of the Philippines.

In the Thai language the flowers are called ดอกแค (dok khae) and are used in the Thai cuisine both cooked in curries, such as kaeng som and raw with nam phrik.

The young pods are also eaten, along with the leaves. In Sri Lanka, agati leaves, known as Katura murunga in Sinhala language, are sometimes added to sudhu hodhi or white curry, a widely eaten, thin coconut gravy and is believed locally to be a cure for canker sores. In India this plant is known as agati (Hindi), agastya (Kannada), agise (Telugu), and both the leaves and the flowers have culinary uses.

Common names

• Indic languages:
  • Hindi: गाछ मूंगा (gaach-munga)
  • Malayalam: അകത്തി (akatti)
  • Sanskrit: अगस्ति (agasti)
  • Kannada: agase
  • Oriya: ଅଗସ୍ତି (agastee)
  • Tamil: அகத்தி (akatthi)
  • Telugu: అవిసి (avisi)
  • Marathi: हेटा (heta)
• South-east asian languages:
  • Indonesian: bunga turi ; kembang turi
  • Lao: ແຄ(ຂາວ) [kʰɛ́ː kʰǎːw]
  • Khmer: ផ្កាអង្គាដី (pka angkea dey)
  • Tagalog: katuray
  • Thai: แค (khae)
  • Vietnamese: so đũa
• Chinese language: 大花田菁 (da4 hua1 tian2 jing2)/ 木田菁/ 紅蝴蝶.

See also

• Sesbania bispinosa
• Edible flowers

External links

• Sesbania grandiflora on Tropicalforages.info
• Sesbania grandiflora in the AgroForestry Database of the World Agroforestry Centre
• Sesbania grandiflora on the FAO web site
• Sesbania grandiflora on the web site of the Center for New Crops & Plant Products at Purdue University.