Macrotyloma axillare(E.Mey.) Verdc.

perennial horsegram

WFO wfo-0000181770 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.

Macrotyloma axillare, photographed by Peter Warren
fig. a Peter Warren, CC0 1.0 / 2018-03-21 / obs. 14363954
Macrotyloma axillare, photographed by Peter Warren
fig. b Peter Warren, CC0 1.0 / obs. 13797387
Macrotyloma axillare, photographed by Peter Warren
fig. c Peter Warren, CC0 1.0 / obs. 14363959
Macrotyloma axillare, photographed by Peter Warren
fig. d Peter Warren, CC0 1.0 / obs. 13797392
Macrotyloma axillare, photographed by Peter Warren
fig. e Peter Warren, CC0 1.0 / obs. 14363967
Macrotyloma axillare, photographed by Peter Warren
fig. f Peter Warren, CC0 1.0 / obs. 13797394
Macrotyloma axillare, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. g Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58986014
Macrotyloma axillare, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. h Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58986025

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 34 botanical countries

Regions where Macrotyloma axillare is native: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Comoros, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Réunion, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Yemen, Sri Lanka AngolaBotswanaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaGhanaGuineaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNamibiaNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSenegalSierra LeoneSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabweYemenSri Lanka ComorosMauritiusRéunion
Native distribution of Macrotyloma axillare, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Comoros COM
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mauritius MAU
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Réunion REU
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Yemen YEM ASIA-TEMPERATE
Sri Lanka SRL ASIA-TROPICAL

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 86 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 4.9 °C 10.2 °C 18.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.6 °C 27.3 °C 30.3 °C
Annual rainfall 667 mm 1,047 mm 1,784 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 10 mm 107 mm 188 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 86 research-grade observations of Macrotyloma axillare 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 6 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.

  • Clitoria viridiflora Bouton ex Hook.
  • Dolichos axillaris E.Mey.
  • Dolichos axillaris var. glaber E.Mey.
  • Dolichos axillaris var. macranthus Brenan
  • Dolichos axillaris var. pubescens E.Mey.
  • Dolichos uniflorus var. glaber Trimen

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.