• Family : FABACEAE
• Family (As per The Plant List) : Fabaceae (Leguminosae)
• Subfamily : Faboideae
• Species : Mucuna pruriens
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC.
• Common name : Velvet Bean, Common Cow Itch
• Vernacular name : Kapikachhu (San.); Gonca (Hin.); Nayisungu, Nasa gunni (Kan.)
• Collection Nos : KFP 5767, HFP 912
• Key identification features : A climbing shrub with long vines that can reach over 15 m. in length. When the plant is young, it is almost completely covered with fuzzy hairs. Leaves are trifoliate, leaflets are ovate-rhomboid and acute. Flowers are in axillary clusters. They are 3-4 cm. long. Fruits are cylindrical, densely hairy and curved at the apex.
• Habit : Climbing Shrub
• Native : Tropical Africa, India, Caribbean
• Comments : Fruit hair is a skin-irritant. Pods are medicinal.
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Distribution Locality : Bangalore, Bidar, Dakshina Kannada, Davanagere, Gulbarga, Hassan, Kodagu, Mysore, Tumkur, Udupi, Uttara Kannada
• Floras referred : Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 - Hassan; Saldanha, 1984; Seetharam et al., 2000 - Gulbarga; Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 - Coorg; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2003 - Udupi; Bhaskar & Kushalappa, 2013- Flora of Tumkur District; Manjunath et al., 2003 - Davanagere; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2014 - Flora of South Kanara

Description

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