Sesbania
Family:
Fabaceae (beans)
Description:
Sesbania is an erect annual herb of the legume family which typically grows to a height of 3-10 feet. Its rather large leaves are 4-12 inches long with 20-70 leaflets per leaf. Flowers are 1/2 to 3/4 inch long, yellowish, and strongly speckled with purplish brown.
It has slender, quadrangular pods, about 6-8 inches long and 1/8 to 3/16 inch wide. The seeds are small and numerous, about 1/8 to 3/16 inch long and 1/16 inch wide. The seeds are more or less orange on their attachment side, with the other surface possessing a more or less olive-green background, speckled or blotched with black.
Size:
Height: 3-10 feet.
Habitat and conservation:
Sesbania prefers wet, highly disturbed habitats and sandy sites. It occurs in low sandy fields, sand bars of streams, alluvial ground along sloughs and borders of oxbow lakes, and along roadsides, railroads, in disturbed urban sites and agricultural areas. It may become a troublesome exotic species in wetland communities that are managed for waterfowl.
Distribution in Missouri:
Potentially statewide. Native to southeastern U.S. and adjacent Mexico, from South Carolina to the southern tip of Florida, westward to the eastern third of Texas, and northward to Oklahoma, Illinois and Missouri. Reportedly introduced in the northeastern United States.
Life cycle:
Optimum germination occurs late in the growing season when mudflats are exposed during periods of elevated temperatures. 
Shortened URL
mdc.mo.gov/node/6274
