| Sesbania grandiflora | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Fabales |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Genus: | Sesbania |
| Species: | S. grandiflora |
| Binomial name | |
| Sesbania grandiflora (L.) Poiret |
|
Sesbania grandiflora (also known as agati, syn. Aeschynomene grandiflora) or hummingbird tree/scarlet wisteria is a small tree in the genus Sesbania.
Contents |
It is a fast-growing tree with a typical adult height of between 3 and 5 m. The leaves are regular and rounded and the flowers white and large, very characteristic. The fruits look like flat, long and thin green beans. The tree thrives under full exposure to sunshine and is extremely frost sensitive.
It is believed to have originated either in India or Southeast Asia and grows primarily in hot and humid tropical areas of the world.
The flowers of S. grandiflora are eaten as a vegetable in Southeast Asia, like Laos, Thailand, Java in Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Ilocos Region of the Philippines.
In the Thai language the flowers are called ดอกแค (dok khae) and are used in the Thai cuisine both cooked in curries and raw.[1]
The young pods are also eaten, along with the leaves. In Sri Lanka, agati leaves, known as Katura murunga in Sinhala language, are sometimes added to sudhu hodhi or white curry, a widely eaten, thin coconut gravy and is believed locally to be a cure for canker sores. In India this plant is known as agati (Hindi), agastya (Kannada), agise (Telugu), and both the leaves and the flowers have culinary uses.
![[1]](http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/MWScan/MWScanjpg/mw0004-akSika.jpg){kind=link}