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Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-073
Tagasaste
Chamaecytisus proliferus
Tagasaste is a fast-growing, evergreen nitrogen-fixing tree bred as fodder, feeding cattle, sheep, goats and alpacas foliage that runs 14 to 33 percent crude protein without causing bloat - unusual for a legume this rich. Roots that reach past ten meters let it keep growing on as little as 200 mm of rain a year, and being evergreen it carries feed straight through winter. It cannot take hard freezes: adult wood is killed somewhere between about -6 C and -9 C, and seedlings die outright at the first frost, so it only holds up where winters stay mild. It also needs sharp drainage, since waterlogged roots rot regardless of temperature.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 9–12
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained
Vertical layer
Shrub- Soil pH
- 4.8–6.5
- Plant type
- Evergreen Tree
- Mature height
- 13 ft
- Mature spread
- 13 ft
- Plant spacing
- 10–20 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
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- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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