Sesbania sesban
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae ⁄ Leguminosae – Pea family
Genus: Sesbania Scop. – riverhemp
Species: Sesbania sesban (L.) Merr. – Egyptian riverhemp
BOTANIC DESCRIPTION
Sesbania sesban is a narrow-crowned, deep-rooting single or multi stemmed shrub or small tree, 1-7 m tall. The trees usually have a main stem but may develop many side branches if widely spaced. The many branches give the tree a shrubby appearance, often tending towards a spreading habit due to its wide branching angle (45-60 deg. Mostly)
Leaves paripinnate, long, narrow; leaflets in many pairs, rounded or oblong, usually asymmetric at the base, often glaucous; stipules minute or absent
Flowers attractive, yellow, red, purplish, variegated or streaked, seldom white, large or small on slender pedicels, solitary or paired in short axillary racemes, usually unpleasantly scented; all petals long clawed, standard orbicular or obovate
Pods pale yellow, linear, usually 10-20 cm long, cylindrical or compressed, rarely oblong; up to 40 seeds are found in a pod; seeds oblong or subquadrate, brown or dark green mottled with black
Two subspecies are recognized within S. sesban, namely ssp. punctata (restricted to northern portions of sub-Saharan Africa) and ssp. sesban
ECOLOGY
Sesbania sesban grows well in the subtropics and is significant in extending the nitrogen-fixing forage trees into cooler, higher elevation regions of the tropics. It has outstanding ability to withstand waterlogging and is ideally suited to seasonally flooded environments. When flooded, it initiates floating, adventitious roots and protects its stems, roots and nodules with spongy, aerenchyma tissue. It is common along streams, swamp banks and moist and inundated bottomlands
Sesbania sesban shows some tolerance to moisture stress and tolerates soil alkalinity and salinity to a considerable degree
BIOPHYSICAL LIMITS
Altitude: 100-2300 m, Mean annual temperature: (10 min.) 18-23 (45 max.) deg. C, Mean annual rainfall: 500-2000 mm
Soil type:
Tolerates seasonal or permanently waterlogged soils as well as saline, acidic and alkaline soils
PRODUCTS
Food:
Sesbania sesban flowers are edible and are included perhaps as a decorative or festive ingredient in foods such as omelettes
Fodder:
The tree has a high percentage of foliage nitrogen and is an excellent supplement to protein-poor roughage in ruminant diets. Ruminants readily eat leaves and young branches. The crude protein content of the foliage is generally greater than 20% and often above 25%. In vitro dry-matter digestibility is 75%. Nylon-bag dry-matter digestibility of dried leaf of S. sesban is 90.7% and nitrogen digestibility is 96.7%. These characteristics, together with the generally low crude fibre content and high phosphorous levels, indicate the potential of the species as a high-quality forage source
When grazed, the brittle tree may break too easily and expose the tree to fungal attack. It has been successfully fed as a sole diet to goats and as a supplement to low-quality forage for sheep
Fuel:
Sesbania sesban is popular for firewood and charcoal because it produces a high woody biomass in a short time, which, although soft, is relatively smokeless, quick kindling and hot burning. The calorific yield for a 3-year-old tree is approximately 4350 kcal/kg
Fibre:
Sesbania sesban is used for making ropes and fishnet and has potential for pulpwood production
Gum or resin:
Sesbania sesban seeds and bark produce gum
Poison:
The saponin, stigmasta-galactopyranoside, which is isolated from the seeds, has glucuronide derivatives of oleanolic acid, which has molluscicidal activity against Biophalaria glabrata, one of the known snail vectors of schistosomiasis. The saponin also shows spermicidal and haemolytic activity. Using Sesbania sesban leaf meal in poultry diets (as 10% of the diet) is fatal to young chicks, and the provision of either cholesterol or sitosterol with the diet significantly improves chick survival
Medicine:
Fresh Sesbania sesban roots and leaves are used to treat scorpion stings, boils and abscesses. The Hausa of Ghana use decoctions of leaves as a drench for cattle to repel tsetse fly. Among the Haya people of Tanzania, it is used to treat sore throat, gonorrhoea, syphilis, spasmodic fits in children and jaundice during pregnancy. The leaves are used in some countries as a tea and are considered to have antibiotic, anthelmintic, antitumour and contraceptive properties. Oil from the seeds is accorded special properties in ayurvedic medicine and is reported to have bactericidal, cardiac depressant and hypoglycaemic actions
SERVICES
Shade or shelter: Sesbania sesban has been used to shade coffee, tea and cocoa. It has also been used as a windbreak for bananas, citrus and coffee
Soil improver:
Sesbania sesban will increase soil nitrogen through symbiotic interaction with bacteria, has the ability to stabilize soil, and in Asia has been used as green manure for rice. Its branches have been used as mulch and leaves as a green manure
Sesbania sesban improves soil fertility in a short-term rotation fallow and is useful in combating striga weed (Striga hermonthica). Some studies indicate that in 1 year a Sesbania sesban fallow can increase maize yields from 2 to 4 t/ha without application of nitrogen fertilizer
Intercropping:
Sesbania sesban is a promising shrub for alley cropping because it is easy to establish, it grows rapidly, coppices readily and provides mulch of high nutrient content (particularly N). In some climates, such as in the highlands of Kenya, it may have a sparse canopy, and weed competition can be a problem. This characteristic makes Sesbania sesban a good intercrop
Boundary or barrier or support:
Suitable for use as live trellises for pepper
TREE MANAGEMENT
One of the major advantages of sesbania over other forage trees and shrubs is its rapid early growth rate, which can be exploited by intercropping it with other slower establishing species for earlier yields. In India, it has been reported to attain a height of 4-5 m in 6 months
Sesbania sesban thrives under repeated cuttings and coppices readily, with many branches arising from the main stem below cutting height. Cutting frequencies are generally 3-4 cuts/annum, but up to 8 cuts are made in some areas. Yields have ranged from 4 to 12 t/ha dry matter per year, depending on location. Cutting height can also influence yield, with cutting heights of 50-76 cm favouring plant survival and productivity
The rhizobium requirements of Sesbania sesban vary. There is a host-strain interaction, and different accessions of Sesbania sesban require different strains of bacteria
GERMPLASM MANAGEMENT
Seed storage behaviour is orthodox. Viability can be maintained for 2 years in open storage at room temperature. There are 85 000 - 100 000 seeds/kg
PESTS AND DISEASES
Sesbania sesban is attacked by nematodes, insects, fungi and viruses. The leaf-eating beetle Mesoplatys ochroptera can completely defoliate Sesbania sesban, leading to mortality.
Caterpillars, Hymenoptera, and stem borers are normally associated with Sesbania sesban. Some potentially destructive root-knot nematodes have been recorded in India as associated with Sesbania sesban
Direct seeding of Sesbania sesban for green manure in agroforestry systems
Seed rate
Depth of sowing seed on direct seeding of Sesbania sesban
Sesbania as a tree has a contribution in mitigating a climatic change by trapping carbon dioxide from atmosphere
It can also be used as agro forestry tree
Shade tree for coffee, tea, and crops
Fire Wood
Fencing Wood
Fodder Plants
Windbreak
Wind Break
Green Manure
Deforestation
Salt Tolerance
Tropical
Agroforestry
Desert Forest Trees
Desert Plants
Flowering Plants
Legume Trees
Weed Control
Soil Improvement
Productive
Multipurpose Tree
Widely Distributed
Tropics
Subtropic
Dry Land
Dry Farming
Sandy Soil
Phytoremediation
Economic Analysis
Farmer Assessment
Farmer-participatory trials
Pigeonpea Sesban
Soilfertility Replenishment
Phytoremediation
Anti-inflammation
Antioxidant Effect
Abortion and Antifertility Agent
Antimicrobial Activity
Firewood Source
Livestock Feed
Pasture Improvement
Mosquito Repellant
Live Support
Schistosoma Control
Climatic Change
Global Warming
Shade or Shelter
Fuel
Fuelwood
Fuel Wood
Nitrogen-fixing
Nitrogen Fixing
Mulch
Mulching
Leguminous Tree
Direct seeding
Relatively Non-labour Intensive
High Adoption Potential
Agro-Industries
Improve Crop Productivity
Perennial
Perennials
Soil Fertility
Nutrient Inputs
Green Revolution
Shrubby Appearance
Fibre
Shrub
Fast Growth Rate
Bees Pollinators
Cultivated
Wild
Tolerates Saline Soils
Tolerates Acidic Soils
Tolerates Alkaline Soils
Sunny Position Requires
Soil Alkalinity
Soil Salinity
Fast-growing
Ropes Making
Nets Making
Horticulture
Fix Atmospheric Nitrogen
Shelter Organic Matter
Deep-rooting
Medicine in which aqueous extract of Sesbania sesban reduced development of diabetic nephropathy in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats
The Sesbania sesban is a fast growing plant commonly used as fuel wood and is also used as a feed for ruminant animals
Being a legume, the tree fixes nitrogen and has proved to be popular as a fallow species and as an agro-forestry species
