Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
← Explore Plants
Plant · P-079
Vegetable Hummingbird
Sesbania grandiflora
Vegetable Hummingbird is grown across southeast Asia for its flower, eaten raw, boiled, fried or in curries with a reported mushroom flavour, plus edible leaf, pod and seed and a strong nitrogen-fixing habit. The flower does not appear until the second year, and it needs a frost-free zone 9-12 climate with 2000-4000 mm of annual rainfall, so it never reaches the yield it is grown for anywhere drier or colder than that.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 9–12
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Moderate · Wet
Vertical layer
Sub-Canopy- Soil pH
- 5.5–8.5
- Plant type
- Deciduous Tree
- Mature height
- 33–49 ft
- Mature spread
- 33 ft
- Plant spacing
- 10–12 ft
- Root type
- Fibrous-shallow
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
African Moringa
Moringa stenopetala
African moringa is a small deciduous tree grown for edible leaves, flowers, seedpods and young fruit, along with a seed oil used in soap and…
Sub-Canopy · USDA 10–12
Allegheny Chinquapin
Castanea pumila
Allegheny Chinquapin is a chestnut that grows as a spreading, thicket-forming shrub instead of a single trunk, sending up new stems from…
Sub-Canopy · USDA 5–9
Ashe Juniper
Juniperus ashei
Ashe juniper is a slow-growing, densely branched evergreen conifer of rocky, limestone canyons and outcrops, capable of living two to three…
Sub-Canopy · USDA 6–9
Atemoya
Annona x atemoya
Atemoya is a cross between cherimoya and sugar apple grown for a large, pale, heart-shaped fruit whose custard-textured white pulp is scooped…
Sub-Canopy · USDA 10–11
Bael
Aegle marmelos
Bael is a slow-growing, spiny deciduous tree native to the dry and mixed deciduous forests of tropical Asia, from India across Nepal and…
Sub-Canopy · USDA 10–12
Banana Plantain
Musa balbisiana
This is a wild, heavily seeded banana from eastern and south Asian forests, not a true plantain - most cooking plantains are hybrids that…
Sub-Canopy · USDA 8–11
The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
- Locked research reference
- Locked research reference
- Locked research reference