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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-242
Moth Bean
Vigna aconitifolia
Moth bean, known in India as matki, is the most heat-and-drought-adapted food plant in this group by a wide margin: it thrives at the tail end of the hot season after other crops have already failed, tolerates daytime highs to 45C, and can make a crop on as little as two inches of rain spread across three or four showers. It grows as a prostrate creeping mat that covers ground fast without rooting into a permanent stand, so it doubles as erosion control on a raw slope or berm. Both the immature pods and the mature seed are eaten, cooked into dal or milled for flatbread, though the seed needs soaking, cooking or a short pressure-cook to break down several natural inhibitors first. Its straw stays palatable after the seed harvest, which makes livestock feed a genuine second yield rather than leftover residue.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 3–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Dry
Vertical layer
Groundcover- Soil pH
- 3.5–10
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 12–16 in
- Mature spread
- 2–5 ft
- Plant spacing
- 6 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- None
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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