Plant · P-1158

Flemingia

Flemingia macrophylla

Flemingia is a tropical shrub planted mainly as a living nitrogen source and weed-smothering mulch, grown as a hedgerow along the contour or in alleys between food crops and cut back every month or so. The slow-rotting leaf litter blankets the ground and blocks weeds for months while the roots hold soil on slopes and terraces. Its dried seed pods carry a purple-orange powder that has long been rubbed off and used to dye silk and cotton a deep golden yellow. Frost kills it outright, so it only survives outdoors where winters stay well above freezing.