Derris elliptica(Wall.) Benth.

derristubaroot

WFO wfo-0000186905 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 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.

Derris elliptica, photographed by 葉子
fig. a 葉子, CC0 1.0 / 2021-04-21 / obs. 129820465

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
05104732
Filed as
Derris elliptica (Wall.) Benth.
Det. by
T. Flynn 2006-03-06
Collected
P. Emos Eperiam 2006-03-06
Origin
FM
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 21 botanical countries

Regions where Derris elliptica is native: Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, Christmas I., India, Jawa, Laos, Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam AssamBangladeshBorneoCambodiaIndiaJawaLaosMalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnam Andaman Is.Christmas I.Nicobar Is.
Native distribution of Derris elliptica, 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
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Assam ASS
Bangladesh BAN
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
Christmas I. XMS
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Philippines PHI
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE

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.

Also published as 25 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.

  • Dalbergia elliptica Span.
  • Dalbergia glaucescens Zipp. ex Miq.
  • Dalbergia purpurea Reinw. ex Hassk.
  • Deguelia elliptica (Wall.) Taub.
  • Derris elliptica var. chittagongensis Thoth.
  • Derris elliptica var. elliptica
  • Derris elliptica var. glaucophylla (Miq.) Kaneh. & Hatus.
  • Derris elliptica var. tonkinensis Gagnep.
  • Galactia termimaliflora Blanco
  • Galedupa elliptica (Wall.) Roxb.
  • Galedupa grandiflora Juss. ex Vent.
  • Millettia elliptica (Wall.) Steud.
  • Nothoderris elliptica (Wall.) Blume ex Miq.
  • Nothoderris glaucescens Blume ex Miq.
  • Nothoderris purpurea Blume ex Miq.
  • Paraderris elliptica (Wall.) Adema
  • Paraderris elliptica var. chittagongensis (Thoth.) Adema
  • Pongamia dubia Graham
  • Pongamia elliptica Wall.
  • Pongamia grandiflora Vent.
  • Pongamia horsfieldii Miq.
  • Pongamia hypoleuca Miq.
  • Pongamia volubilis Zoll. & Moritzi
  • Pongamia volubilis var. glaucophylla Miq.

and 1 more.

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.