Skip to content


Taxon:  Sesbania sesban (L.) Merr.



Summary
Genus:
Sesbania
Family:
Fabaceae (alt. Leguminosae)
Subfamily:
Faboideae
Tribe:
Sesbanieae
Nomen number:
33782
Place of publication:
Philipp. J. Sci., C 7:235. 1912
Verified:
02/18/2005 ARS Systematic Botanists.
Accessions:
60 (57  active, 20  available) in Australian Pastures Genebank.  (Map it)
Other conspecific taxa
Sesbania sesban (L.) Merr. subsp. muricata Baquar (0 active accession[s])
Sesbania sesban (L.) Merr. subsp. punctata (DC.) J. B. Gillett (0 active accession[s])
Sesbania sesban (L.) Merr. subsp. sesban (0 active accession[s])
Sesbania sesban (L.) Merr. subsp. sesban var. bicolor (Wight & Arn.) F. W. Andrews (0 active accession[s])
Sesbania sesban (L.) Merr. subsp. sesban var. nubica Chiov. (1 active accession[s])
Sesbania sesban (L.) Merr. subsp. sesban var. sesban (0 active accession[s])
Sesbania sesban (L.) Merr. subsp. sesban var. zambesiaca J. B. Gillett (0 active accession[s])
Autonyms (not in current use), synonyms and invalid designations
No images


Reference(s)
  1. Adams, C. Flowering plants of Jamaica. 1972
  2. Allen, O. N. & E. K. Allen. The Leguminosae. A source book of characteristics, uses, and nodulation. 1981
  3. Aubréville, A. et al., eds. Flore du Cambodge du Laos et du Viet-Nam. 1960-
  4. Boulos, L. Flora of Egypt. 1999-
  5. Burbidge, N. T. 1965. The Australian species of Sesbania Scopoli (Leguminosae). Austral. J. Bot. 13:124.
  6. Du Puy, D. J. et al. The Leguminosae of Madagascar. 2002
  7. Encke, F. et al. Zander: Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen, 13. Auflage. 1984
  8. Facciola, S. Cornucopia, a source book of edible plants. 1990
  9. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop (on-line resource).
  10. Gillett, J. B. 1963. Sesbania in Africa (excluding Madagascar) and southern Arabia. Kew Bull. 17:112.
  11. Holm, L. et al. A geographical atlas of world weeds. 1979
  12. Huang, S. F. & T. C. Huang. Taxonomic treatment of the Papilionoideae (Leguminosae) of Taiwan. Taiwania 32:11-117. 1987
  13. Kumar, S & P. V. Sane. Legumes of South Asia: a checklist. 2003
  14. Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. Hortus third. 1976
  15. Lock, J. M. & J. Heald. Legumes of Indochina: a checklist. 1994
  16. Lock, J. M. & K. Simpson. Legumes of West Asia: a checklist. 1991
  17. Lock, J. M. Legumes of Africa: a checklist. 1989
  18. Mabberley, D. J. The plant-book: a portable dictionary of the vascular plants, ed. 2. 1997
  19. McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2. 2000
  20. McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2. 2000
  21. Nasir, E. & S. I. Ali, eds. Flora of [West] Pakistan. 1970-
  22. Nasir, S. M. & M. Athar. 1998. Fuelwood as an energy source. Phytologia 85:106.
  23. Parrotta, J. A. Healing plants of peninsular India. 2001
  24. Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) (on-line resource).
  25. Pulle, A. A. et al., eds. Flora of Suriname. 1932-
  26. Sanjappa, M. Legumes of India. 1992
  27. Sharma, R. S. et al. 2005. Diversity in a promiscuous group of rhizobia from three Sesbania spp. colonizing ecologically distinct habitats of the semi-arid Delhi region. Res. Microbiol. 156:57-67.
  28. 't Mannetje, L. & R. M. Jones, eds. 1992. Forages. Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). 1989- 4:198.
  29. Townsend, C. C. & E. Guest. Flora of Iraq. 1966-
  30. Turrill, W. B. et al., eds. Flora of tropical East Africa. 1952-
  31. Wiersema, J. H. & B. León. World economic plants: a standard reference (on-line edition) [medicinal plants only].
Common names
English
Egyptian sesban –
sesban –
Arabic
saisaban –
Distribution
order_codeStatusContinentSubcontinentCountryStateNote
1NativeAfricaEast Tropical AfricaKenya  
1NativeAfricaEast Tropical AfricaUganda  
1NativeAfricaNortheast Tropical AfricaChad  
1NativeAfricaNortheast Tropical AfricaDjibouti  
1NativeAfricaNortheast Tropical AfricaEthiopia  
1NativeAfricaNortheast Tropical AfricaSomalia  
1NativeAfricaNortheast Tropical AfricaSudan  
1NativeAfricaNorthern AfricaEgypt  
1NativeAfricaSouth Tropical AfricaAngola  
1NativeAfricaSouth Tropical AfricaMalawi  
1NativeAfricaSouth Tropical AfricaZambia  
1NativeAfricaSouth Tropical AfricaZimbabwe  
1NativeAfricaSouthern AfricaBotswana  
1NativeAfricaSouthern AfricaSouth AfricaKwaZulu-Natal 
1NativeAfricaSouthern AfricaSouth AfricaTransvaal 
1NativeAfricaSouthern AfricaSwaziland  
1NativeAfricaWest Tropical AfricaCote D'Ivoire  
1NativeAfricaWest Tropical AfricaGambia  
1NativeAfricaWest Tropical AfricaGhana  
1NativeAfricaWest Tropical AfricaGuinea  
1NativeAfricaWest Tropical AfricaGuinea-Bissau  
1NativeAfricaWest Tropical AfricaMali  
1NativeAfricaWest Tropical AfricaNiger  
1NativeAfricaWest Tropical AfricaNigeria  
1NativeAfricaWest Tropical AfricaSenegal  
1NativeAfricaWest Tropical AfricaSierra Leone  
1NativeAfricaWest Tropical AfricaTogo  
1NativeAfricaWest-Central Tropical AfricaCameroon  
1NativeAfricaWest-Central Tropical AfricaRwanda  
1NativeAsia-TemperateArabian PeninsulaBahrain  
1NativeAsia-TemperateArabian PeninsulaOman  
1NativeAsia-TemperateArabian PeninsulaSaudi Arabia  
1NativeAsia-TemperateArabian PeninsulaYemen  
1NativeAsia-TemperateChinaChinaYunnan 
1NativeAsia-TemperateWestern AsiaAfghanistan  
1NativeAsia-TemperateWestern AsiaIran  
1NativeAsia-TemperateWestern AsiaIraq  
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentBangladesh  
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaAssam 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaBihar 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaDelhi 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaGoa 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaGujarat 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaHaryana 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaHimachal Pradesh 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaKarnataka 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaKerala 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaMadhya Pradesh 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaMaharashtra 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaManipur 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaMizoram 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaNagaland 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaOrissa 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaPondicherry 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaPunjab 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaRajasthan 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaSikkim 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaTamil Nadu 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaTripura 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaUttar Pradesh 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentIndiaWest Bengal 
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentNepal  
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentPakistan  
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndian SubcontinentSri Lanka  
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndo-ChinaCambodia  
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndo-ChinaLaos  
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndo-ChinaThailand  
1NativeAsia-TropicalIndo-ChinaVietnam  
1NativeAsia-TropicalMalesiaIndonesia  
1NativeAsia-TropicalMalesiaMalaysia  
1NativeAsia-TropicalNorth Indian OceanIndiaAndaman and Nicobar 
1NativeAustralasiaAustraliaAustraliaNorthern Territory 
1NativeAustralasiaAustraliaAustraliaQueensland 
2Cultivated     
4Naturalized     
Native
Africa
  • EAST TROPICAL AFRICA: Kenya, Uganda
  • NORTHEAST TROPICAL AFRICA: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Chad
  • NORTHERN AFRICA: Egypt
  • SOUTH TROPICAL AFRICA: Angola, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe
  • SOUTHERN AFRICA: Botswana, Swaziland, South Africa [KwaZulu-Natal, Transvaal]
  • WEST TROPICAL AFRICA: Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo
  • WEST-CENTRAL TROPICAL AFRICA: Cameroon, Rwanda
Asia-Temperate
  • ARABIAN PENINSULA: Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen
  • CHINA: China [Yunnan]
  • WESTERN ASIA: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq
Asia-Tropical
  • INDIAN SUBCONTINENT: Bangladesh, India [Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Pondicherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal], Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan
  • INDO-CHINA: Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam
  • MALESIA: Indonesia, Malaysia
  • NORTH INDIAN OCEAN: India [Andaman and Nicobar]
Australasia
  • AUSTRALIA: Australia [Northern Territory, Queensland]
Cultivated ()
Naturalized ()
Economic Uses
UsageTypeNoteReference
Animal foodfodder Mabberley, D. J. The plant-book: a portable dictionary of the vascular plants, ed. 2. 1997
Environmentalagroforestry Mabberley, D. J. The plant-book: a portable dictionary of the vascular plants, ed. 2. 1997
Environmentalornamental Mabberley, D. J. The plant-book: a portable dictionary of the vascular plants, ed. 2. 1997
Environmentalsoil improver Mabberley, D. J. The plant-book: a portable dictionary of the vascular plants, ed. 2. 1997
Fuelspotential as fuelwood Nasir, S. M. & M. Athar. 1998. Fuelwood as an energy source. Phytologia 85:106.
Medicinesfolklore McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2. 2000
Weed  Holm, L. et al. A geographical atlas of world weeds. 1979
Cite as: USDA, Agricultural Research Service, National Plant Germplasm System. 2025. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN Taxonomy). National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.
URL: https://apg.pir.sa.gov.au/gringlobal/taxon/taxonomydetail?id=33782. Accessed 19 July 2025.


GRIN-Global project