• Family : FABACEAE
  (Pea Or Bean Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : PALASH FAMILY (पलाश फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : Leguminosae
• Subfamily : Faboideae
• Basionym : Hedysarum vaginale L.
• Synonym(s) : Alysicarpus cylindricus (Lam.); Hedysarum cylindricum Lam.; Alysicarpus vaginalis var. stocksii Baker
• Species Name (as per The IPNI) : Alysicarpus vaginalis (L.) DC.
• Common name : Alyce Clover, One-leaved clover
• Vernacular name :
  • Nila-orila (Malayalam)
• Habit : Herb
• Habitat : Scrub forests, cultivated lands
• Comments / notes : On moist slopes and hills up to 1400m.
• Key identification features : Raceme elongate
• Flower, Fruit : August-January
• Collector(s) Name : K. Sankara Rao, Arun Singh, Raja K. Swamy
• Collection Date : 19/11/2014
• Collection Nos : HJCB-0155
• Collection Locality : Palamaneru forest, Chittoor district
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : All districts of Andhra Pradesh
  • Karnataka : All districts of Karnataka
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : Akola district
  • Odisha : Sambalpur district
  • Tamil Nadu : Madurai district, Namakkal district, Salem district, Tiruchirapalli district, Vellore district, Dindigul district, Tiruvannamalai district, Dharmapuri district, Kanchipuram (Changalpattu-CGP) district, Coimbatore district, Pudukkottai district, Ramanathapuram district
  • Madhya Pradesh : Hoshangabad district
  • Uttarakhand : Uttarakhand
  • Sikkim : Sikkim
  • West Bengal : West Bengal
  • Himachal Pradesh : Kinnaur district
  • Arunachal Pradesh : Arunachal Pradesh
  • Meghalaya : Meghalaya
  • Assam : Assam
  • Nagaland : Nagaland
  • Delhi : Delhi
  • Uttar Pradesh : Uttar Pradesh
  • Punjab : Punjab
  • Jammu and Kashmir : Jammu and Kashmir
  • Mizoram : Mizoram
  • Manipur : Manipur
  • Tripura : Tripura
  • Lakshadweep : Kavaratti Islands
• Native : Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Burkina, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Comoros, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Gulf States, Hainan, India, Jawa, Kenya, KwaZulu-
• Exotic/Native : Native
• World Distribution : Old world tropics, introduced into America
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature :
  • Pullaiah et al., 2001 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 2
  • H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1994- Flora of Orissa Vol. 1
  • J.L.Ellis, 1987- Flora of Nallamalais Vol. 1
  • R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District
  • R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District
  • H. O. Saxena and M. Brahmam, 1989 - The Flora of Similipahar (Similipal), Orissa
  • N.P.Singh, 1988. Flora of Eastern Karnataka
  • Matthew, K.M., Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983
  • Kamble & Pradhan, 1988. Flora of Akola District, Maharashtra. Botanical Survey of India
  • Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI
  • Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1
  • Cecil J. Saldanha, S. R. Ramesh (1984). Flora of Karnataka State vol. 1. Oxford and IBH Publishing Co, New Delhi
  • Gowda, 2004 – Flora of Sringeri
  • Ramaswamy & Razi, 1973 - Flora of Bangalore
  • Rao & Razi, 1981 - Flora of Mysore
  • Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 - Flora of Coorg
  • Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2003 - Flora of Udupi
  • Manjunath et al., 2003 - Flora of Davanagere
  • Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2014 – Flora of South Kanara
  • C., Sudhakar Reddy & Roy, Parth. (2011). Plant Diversity of Lakshadweep Islands.
  • H J, Chowdhery, et al. Flora of Himachal Pradesh. Volume 1, Botanical Survey of India, 1984. Pg.: 181
• Read more :
  • Plants of the World Online
  • World Flora Online
  • Global Plants on JSTOR
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Deepak Kumar (2024). India Flora Online. http://indiafloraonline-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Alysicarpus vaginalis. Downloaded on 1 April 2025.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Line Drawings

Field Image(s)

India Distribution

World Distribution