Plant · P-078

Gliricidia

Gliricidia sepium

Gliricidia is a nitrogen-fixing tree grown across the tropics as living fence, coppiced fodder and shade, with leaf that runs rich enough in protein to feed cattle, goats, pigs, poultry, rabbits and even fish once it has wilted or been ensiled - fresh-cut leaf smells strong enough that animals new to it refuse it at first. Its wood, cut on a two-to-four-month coppice cycle, supplies fuel and charcoal, and the traditional use behind its common name, which translates as mouse killer, is a rodenticide made from fermented leaves, seed or bark. Every part is reported poisonous if eaten raw, though ruminants can safely digest what non-ruminants cannot. It needs warmth year-round and mature trees die outright at about -2 C.