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.