Tephrosia candida
(white tephrosia)

Preferred Common Name

• white tephrosia

Other Scientific Names

• Cracca candida (Roxb.) Kuntze
• Kiesera candida (DC.) Reinw.
• Kiesera sericea Blume
• Robinia candida Roxb.
• Robinia sericea C.Presl
• Xiphocarpus candidus (DC.) Hassk.
• Xiphocarpus candidus Endl
• Xiphocarpus martinicensis C.Presl

International Common Names

• English: hoang pea; white hoary pea
• French: indigo blanc; indigo sauvage
• Chinese: bai hui mao dou

Local Common Names

• Bangladesh: bangara; bogamedula
• Brazil: tefrósia
• French Polynesia: requie'nie
• India: boga medalo; boga-medeloa; kulthi; lashita; masethi
• Indonesia: enceng-enceng; kapeping badah; poko tom
• Micronesia, Federated states of: uppin
• Papua New Guinea: pis pea
• Vietnam: cot khi

EPPO code

• TEPCA (Tephrosia candida)

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Dicotyledonae
•                     Order: Fabales
•                         Family: Fabaceae
•                             Subfamily: Faboideae
•                                 Genus: Tephrosia
•                                     Species: Tephrosia candida

Tephrosia is a large genus of tropical and subtropical herbs or shrubs belonging to the legume family Fabaceae, in subfamily Faboideae (also called the Papilionoideae). Taxonomically there are issues regarding the delimitations of T. candida and its relationship to closely related species. For example, a type specimen designated as T. candida DC. in collections originating from the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) was confirmed by Stevenson et al. (2012) as T. vogelii on the basis of morphological comparison with verified herbarium specimens and DNA sequence analysis.

The generic name Tephrosia is from the Greek word tephros meaning ashen, a reference to the greyish appearance of its leaves imparted by dense trichomes. The specific name candida means pure white in Latin, likely in reference to the flower colour.

T. candida is an erect shrub or small tree up to 3.5 m tall, occasionally to 5 m, with straggling branches from the base. Stems ridged, greyish white, tomentose, trichomes about 1 mm across. Leaves are spirally arranged, imparipinnate, with stipules 5-11 mm x 0.8-1.5 mm, often caduceus. Rachis 15-25 cm long including the petiole 1-3 cm long, with a brown indumentum, containing 6-13 pairs of leaflets that are opposite, narrowly ovate, elliptical to narrowly obovate, (1.3-) 3-6 (-7.5) cm long and 0.5-1.7 cm wide, glaucous green, soft, with silvery indumentum, the base and apex being acute, long-mucronate, and venation distinct below, with 30-50 secondary veins on each side of the midvein.

Inflorescences are terminal, axillary or leaf-opposed pseudoracemes, usually 15-20 cm but up to-40 cm long. There are few basal bracts, leaf-like, upper bracts narrowly triangular, 2.2-6 mm long and 0.5-1.5 mm across, often caduceus. Flowers are in fascicles of 5-13, 13-26 mm long, white, silky, with dark brown hairs on the outside; the calyx campanulate, broadly ovate to obovate, 13-25 x 11-25 mm, apex rounded to emarginate, acuminate, claw 1-5 mm long, wings 12-20 x 5.5-13 mm, glabrous, lateral pockets sometimes bulging; stamens 10, vexillary filament free at base, other filaments alternately longer and shorter. The corolla is white, rarely yellow or pale pink, and densely sericeous. Ovaries are tomentose, with numerous ovules.

Pods are linear, 7-12 cm long and 0.5-1 cm across, straight, with a thin dry pericarp turning from green to olive brown, light brown to dark brown in colour and covered with silky hairs (tomentose with a mixture of long and short trichomes). Slightly convex around parts that contain each of the 10-15 seeds, and the apex is truncate with a straight beak 1 cm long. Seeds are broadly ovoid, campylotropous and reniform, 4-5.5 x 3-4 mm, olive-green, brown or greyish-brown with dark patches (Oliveira et al., 2000; Orwa et al., 2009).

Little information is forthcoming regarding exact dates of introduction of T. candida outside its native range. It was, however, reported to have been introduced from Asia to São Paulo, Brazil, in 1930 (Inforzato, 1947). Using seed apparently of African origin, T. candida and five other Tephrosia species were introduced in 1940 as potential medicinal crops for the production of rotenone to southwestern Transcaucasia, a region that is now in the Republic of Georgia; T. candida, T. vogelii, T. rigida and T. grandiflora grew and developed well in the region with its humid subtropical climate (Razdorskaja, 1941).

Soil drainage

• free

Soil reaction

• acid
• neutral
• very acid

Soil texture

• light
• medium

Special soil tolerances

• infertile
• shallow

Natural Dispersal

Planted for erosion control on steep slopes, it may be expected that seed would be transported down slopes by gravity and could be washed along water courses after rainfall events. The large seeds and the fact that pods are dry and dehiscent suggest that seed dispersal may be more likely via physical events rather than with the aid of biotic vectors.

Intentional Introduction

Most long distance movement of T. candida is likely to be via intentional introduction for its noted value as an agroforestry species, for soil improvement, erosion control and other environmental services provided.

T. candida is widely cultivated for various reasons, including as a cover crop and green manure. However, in some places, especially parts of China, Taiwan, Reunion and a few Pacific islands (Cook Islands, Hawaii, Palau, Samoa and Micronesia), it has escaped from cultivation and become a noxious weed requiring eradication.

Impact on Biodiversity

T. candida is able to form dense thickets, especially in disturbed areas (Space and Imada, 2004), and the resulting monocultures can suppress the growth of native species.

• Proved invasive outside its native range
• Has a broad native range
• Highly adaptable to different environments
• Tolerates, or benefits from, cultivation, browsing pressure, mutilation, fire etc
• Pioneering in disturbed areas
• Tolerant of shade
• Benefits from human association (i.e. it is a human commensal)
• Has propagules that can remain viable for more than one year

• Reduced native biodiversity
• Threat to/ loss of native species

• Competition - monopolizing resources
• Competition - shading

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately
• Difficult/costly to control

Economic Value

The leaves of T. candida are high in protein and are used as a fodder for livestock, the wood is used for fuel and there are many other uses of the plant’s parts. It is cultivated as a mulch, green manure, nurse crop and windbreak (Orwa et al., 2009). It is planted as a shade tree in agroforestry systems (Nguyen and Thai, 1993) and as a nurse tree for commercial timber species, such as Shorea robusta in India (Krishnaswany, 1956).

When grown for fodder, T. candida was reported to produce almost 11 t DM per hectare at the first 7-month harvest, whereas the common fodder species Leucaena leucocephala had not even reached 100 cm in height (Odedire and Babayemi, 2007).

T. candida, as well as T. vogelii and Mucuna pruriens, were identified as potential species for enhancing crop yields in the coastal areas of Kenya through their contribution to soil nitrogen balance, and production could be further increased with rhizobial inoculation and addition of phosphorus (Kiraithe et al., 2009).

In newly planted perennial crops such as citrus, coconut, coffee, clove, teak, rubber and tea, T. candida is grown as a temporary shade crop. It is also widely grown in intercropping situations, for example with pineapple, maize and other annual crops, and is reported to improve the quality of tobacco (Orwa et al., 2009). It has been intercropped with cassava on degraded acid soils in Vietnam (Huynh, 1993).

Extracts from T. candida are used for their insecticidal properties (Stoll, 1996). Leaf extracts have been shown to deter the feeding of the root weevil Diaprepes abbreviatus (Lapointe et al., 2003). In addition to insecticidal properties, extracts contain various flavonoids that possess piscicidal and many therapeutic properties (ILDIS, 2013). Rotenoids with potential insecticidal and piscicidal activities have been isolated from roots of T. candida (Andrei et al., 1997).

T. candida has also been used in controlling Imperata cylindrica especially after fire, as T. candida can grow quickly and shade out the shade-intolerant I. cylindrica (Conservator of Forests, Ceylon, 1954).

Social Benefit

In western Kenya, farmers typically plant fallows at high plants densities (more than 100,000 plants/ha), and it was found that 0.25 ha of T. candida and some other high producing species more than met the fuelwood needs of an average family (Jama et al., 2008); T. candida produced the most fuelwood of all the species tested, with almost 9 t/ha after 6 months.

T. candida is also planted as a boundary, barrier, support or windbreak, and is well adapted for being grown in contour hedges and in hedgerows around fields and home gardens (Wu et al., 2009).

T. candida is also sometimes grown as an ornamental tree (Orwa et al., 2009).

Environmental Services

T. candida is particularly valuable for the environmental services the plant provides, such as erosion control, soil conservation and soil improvement (Orwa et al., 2009). When T. candida was grown as a green manure in Kenya (Kiraithe et al., 2009), it produced large amounts of nitrogen for recycling after fallow periods. The species forms root nodules with Bradyrhizobium and fixes large amounts of atmospheric nitrogen. T. candida is reported to not only provide nitrogen but also raise soil phosphorus and potassium levels in proportion to increased levels of organic matter (Orwa et al., 2009), improving soil structure, water-holding capacity and permeability.

T. candida grows well on acid and impoverished soils, and its soil improving characteristics have led to its use as a pioneer plant, sown to provide ground cover between perennial crops for erosion control, rehabilitating degraded land, and in contour hedgerows to prevent soil erosion on steep slopes (Gichuru, 1994; Ha, 1994).