What is this plant and where can I get seeds?

I saw this growing as a cover crop in some rice fields and want to buy some seeds (like, a 20kg bag). It’s obviously some kind of fabaceae, but that’s as far as my guesswork gets me. Anybody have any ideas? Just the name in Chinese would be great. If you know who sells farmer-sized bags, even better. It grows to about waist-height, and the flowers are vetch-like.

Take a cutting and clone it. Cloning is water+air=roots

Get a dark plastic box, drill holes in the top, place some aquarium bubble wands in it and the put a plastic cover and mist it 2-3 times a day. If you took a non-woody cutting, it should grow roots in 7-10 days.
rollitup.org/hydroponics-aer … bbler.html

Barring that, show the pic to a Ministry of agriculture center and they should know right away. Finding seeds will require luck. I suggest using the yellow pages. Then you can just show the pic to the seed shops. It should require visiting 5-10 shops to find one that will give you the answer AND sell you seeds.

Definitely looks leguminous. I’m sure you can get plenty of seeds for free.

Save money.

That’s not a cover crop … it’s a weed, grows anywhere, everywhere …

Well, yeah, but I was hoping for a little less effort than waiting for seedpods or taking cuttings! I need a LOT.

I have the photo on phone so I can easily take that to the seed shop … if I can find one. MoA centre sounds like a good idea, I didn’t realise they had those in Taiwan.

I was just curious if someone on here might know exactly what it was (local name).

Yes, I’ve seen it before ‘in the wild’. I imagine it’s a weed because it’s a cover crop, the same way oilseed rape escapes into the countryside in England. It had definitely been planted deliberately; it was in several fields at an even density.

Anyway, thanks all for the responses :slight_smile:

I’ve seen it growing fairly dense on rice paddies in fallow, so I assume it is planted on purpose. It is a legume, and probably used for its nitrogen fixing capacity. I don’t know the local name, but head to a nearby rice cooperative and you may be able to get seeds.

Either they grow it and it has gone ‘wild’ or it’s wild because they don’t control growth on the fallow fields … I know it grows rapidly, I’ve seen it grow in our garden when we lived in the hills, and lots of other places actually.

It can grow wild fairly fast, but I normally see it plowed under before that happens.

Looks like something from the genus Mimosa.
Doesn’t look like any of the 4 native mimosa found here.
Mimosa are very invasive.

Why do you need 20kg? Curious. Camouflage crop for your ‘weed’ plantation?

h.

Er… yeah, but not the sort of weed you’re thinking of. I have a large piece of land that needs “terraforming” and it’s currently overrun with triffids. I want to start replacing the native weeds with something more useful, but I discovered clover just dies in the heat. This appears to be the local equivalent.

大葉假含羞草 Chamaecrista nictitans var. glabrata

As others have mentioned, the local farmer’s association would be the place to start your search.

chung … just what I needed, much obliged :bow: