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Project Noah Nature School
Mucuna sp. nr. pruriens
Leguminosae; Mucuna sp. This is the only picture I have of this plant. It looks close to Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC. The "Fruit" or "Flower" was quite large, about 18 inches from top to bottom. On the day I took the photo, I was having a great spotting day (long before I joined Project Noah) wandering all over our farm and surrounding area. I had taken more than 170 photos, several pictures of each creature I saw, and I knew that some of them were species that were new to me. So I was keen to get home and have a look at my "new discoveries". I passed by the plant shown here and rather half-heartedly took a snapshot (one only) and went home. This proved to be a huge mistake. All the other subjects of my pictures that day were immediately identifiable, this one remained unidentified until today, when I uploaded it to Project Noah as a "Spotting". I was greatly surprised to receive an ID Suggestion from arne.roysland, within one hour!! I was even more surprised that he cited one of my favourite websites as his source - http://www.stuartxchange.org/Nipai.html - I visit that website frequently when trying to identify plants, but did not find the article on this particular plant. So I would like to express my thanks to arne.roysland for his his help.
This plant was growing along with many other "weeds" on and around an old dilapidated farm building.
This vine had climbed up a mango tree and along a horizontal branch, until it reached the framework of a dilapidated building (which had collapsed in a typhoon). Then it appears to have grown along some remaining parts of the structure, until this fruit (or flower) hung down to where I saw it. All this detail came rather late, because when I started to realize that this was going to be difficult to identify, I went back to the spot where I saw it, with the intention of taking a lot of pictures. This was some days after the initial spotting and what did I find? The entire "vine" had been pulled down onto the ground and the end where the "fruit" had been was clean cut through by a sharp knife. Our own workers would never have done such a thing. This was the work of a trespasser. So, there it is. A lesson for us all - if you see something, take a sufficient number of pictures while you have the chance. :-)
Hi again, arne.roysland. As you can see, I have modified the ID of this plant to Mucuna sp. and mentioned that it is close to Mucuna pruriens. After you gave me your ID suggestion, I looked at The stuartxchange pictures and description and I wasn't completely sure. I thought that maybe my photo showed a young plant, because the pictures in stuartxchange displayed the beans all rather strung out as opposed to my picture where the beans are all in a tight cluster. So I contacted the owner (and author) of the website, who had been very helpful in the past. He checked pictures of M. pruriens and answered me to the effect that some of them looked like my specimen, but in the absence of pictures of the leaves and beans, it was pretty much impossible to be sure, but he did agree that my plant does belong in the same group as M. pruriens, so you were right in that respect. This problem is all my own fault for not taking more pictures when I had the chance. So I thank you both for helping me out, arne.roysland and Dr. Stuart. I don't need to tell you, I am feeling rather humble right now. :-)
Hi arne.roysland,
Thank you so much, once again. It seems like every time I have a really difficult problem, you come to my rescue. I am just amazed by your breadth of knowledge. Why are you not a ranger? I just wish that I could repay you by identifying something in return, but you never seem to get stuck. Thanks again. John B.
Spotted on Mar 29, 2016
Submitted on Aug 29, 2022
