Crotalaria medicagineaLam.

WFO wfo-0000185077 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Crotalaria medicaginea, photographed by Kym Nicolson
fig. a Kym Nicolson, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-01-24 / obs. 121698263
Crotalaria medicaginea, photographed by Thomas Mesaglio
fig. b Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 63976021
Crotalaria medicaginea, photographed by elawrey
fig. c elawrey, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 64801952
Crotalaria medicaginea, photographed by Michael Somerville
fig. d Michael Somerville, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 183243496
Crotalaria medicaginea, photographed by Michael Somerville
fig. e Michael Somerville, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 183243510
Crotalaria medicaginea, photographed by Thomas Mesaglio
fig. f Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 63976038
Crotalaria medicaginea, photographed by elawrey
fig. g elawrey, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 64801957
Crotalaria medicaginea, photographed by elawrey
fig. h elawrey, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 64801939

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 27 botanical countries

Regions where Crotalaria medicaginea is native: Afghanistan, China South-Central, China Southeast, Gulf States, Oman, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laccadive Is., Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia AfghanistanChina South-CentralChina SoutheastGulf StatesOmanTaiwanAssamBangladeshEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MyanmarNepalNew GuineaPakistanSri LankaThailandVietnamWest HimalayaNew South WalesNorthern TerritoryQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern Australia Laccadive Is.
Native distribution of Crotalaria medicaginea, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laccadive Is. LDV
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Pakistan PAK
Sri Lanka SRL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Gulf States GST
Oman OMA
Taiwan TAI
New South Wales NSW AUSTRALASIA
Northern Territory NTA
Queensland QLD
South Australia SOA
Western Australia WAU

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 106 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 5.7 °C 14.1 °C 19.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 28.2 °C 35.6 °C 40.2 °C
Annual rainfall 299 mm 813 mm 1,686 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 3 mm 15 mm 113 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 106 research-grade observations of Crotalaria medicaginea that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 14 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Crotalaria chincia Buch.-Ham. ex Wall.
  • Crotalaria foliosa Rottler
  • Crotalaria foliosa Willd.
  • Crotalaria herniarioides Wight & Arn.
  • Crotalaria luxurians Benth.
  • Crotalaria medicaginea var. angustata Domin
  • Crotalaria medicaginea var. australiensis Domin
  • Crotalaria neglecta Wight & Arn.
  • Crotalaria procumbens Roxb.
  • Crotalaria virgata Mart.
  • Crotalaria yuanjiangensis C.Y.Yang
  • Crotalaria zollingeriana Miq.
  • Indigofera capitata Graham
  • Indigofera foliosa Willd.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.