Skip to main content

Winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus)

Kecipir or winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) is a plant species in Fabaceae, growing climbing or twisting or creeping to form chronic bushes or filling the soil surface if without support, shoots and young pods are used as vegetables and medicine.

P. tetragonolobus has cylindrical stems, segmented, rarely forming wood, up to 4 m long and green or brown. Many roots with long and flat side roots spread near the surface of the soil, some of which thicken to form tubers.

Dlium Winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus)

Compound leaves with three minor leaves, sitting alternately, stalks of 3-12 cm long and 1.5-5.5 cm greedy. The minor leaves are egg-shaped up to a triangle, 4-15 cm long, 3.5-12 cm wide, angled base, pointed tip, green, a main bone in the middle and minor bones are pinned.

A butterfly-shaped flower in panicles with 2-10 buds growing from armpits of the leaves, panicle stems 5-15 cm long, 1-10 cm greedy and slightly hairy. Double-clad, up to 5 mm, tubular petals with a length of 4-6 mm, non-uniform, 2 mm and green to dark red-purple.

The crown is blue or pale blue or beige or reddish with an almost round or oval-wide flag, 4x3.5 cm, wings and keel are slightly shorter. About 10 stamens in two larvae and ovaries will hitchhike.

Elongated pods, rectangular in shape with uneven winged angles, 6-40 cm long, 2-3.5 cm wide, green when young to turn black and dry when old. Pods have 5-21 seeds, round, 5-10 mm in diameter, yellow or brown or black, sometimes white and spotted.





Winged beans like good soil and adequate sunlight at an altitude up to 1000 m in the tropics. Young fruits and leaves are usually boiled for vegetables. Root tubers can be eaten after boiling, but must be harvested before the fruit gets old. The seeds are eaten as beans after roasting.

Seeds and leaves contain flavonoids, saponins and tannins. Leaf extract is used to treat swollen eyes and earaches. Squeezed leaves to treat ulcers. Kecipir contains up to 36.6% protein, 17.9% fat, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, carbohydrates, vitamin C and tocopherol.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Tribe: Phaseoleae
Subtribe: Phaseolinae
Genus: Psophocarpus
Species: Psophocarpus tetragonolobus

Popular Posts

Javan mocca or Javan slender caesar (Amanita javanica)

OPINION - Javan mocca or Javan slender caesar ( Amanita javanica ) is a mysterious fungus species and has been enigmatic since it was first reported by Boedijn in 1951 and after that no explanation or reporting of specimens is believed to be the same as expected. Boedijn (1951) described A. javanica which grew on Java island as having the characteristics covered in the Amanita genus. Corner and Bas in 1962 tried to describe Javan mocca and all species in Amanita based on specimens in Singapore. Over time some reports say that they have found A. javanica specimens in other Southeast Asia including also China, Japan, India and Nepal. But there is no definitive knowledge and many doubt whether the specimen is the same as described by Boedijn (1951). I was fortunate to have seen this species one afternoon and soon I took out a camera for some shots. In fact, I've only met this mushroom species once. Javan mocca is an endangered species and I have never seen in my experience in...

Purhepecha oak (Quercus purhepecha), new species of shrub oak endemic to the state of Michoacán, Mexico

NEWS - In Mexico, several Quercus shrubby species are taxonomically very problematic including 8 taxa with similar characteristics. Now researchers report the purhepecha oak ( Quercus purhepecha De Luna-Bonilla, S. Valencia & Coombes sp. nov.) as a new tomentose shrubby white oak species with a distribution only in the Cuitzeo basin in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB). Quercus Linnaeus (1753) subdivided into 2 subgenera and 8 sections of which section Quercus (white oaks) has the widest distribution in the Americas, Asia and Europe. This section is very diverse in Mexico and Central America with phylogenomic evidence indicating recent and accelerated speciation in these regions. The number of shrubby oak species in Mexico is still uncertain. De Luna-Bonilla of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and colleagues found at least 3 taxa in the TMVB, specifically Quercus frutex Trelease (1924), Quercus microphylla Née (1801) and Quercus repanda Bonpland (1809). In 2016,...

Tekijem (Cyperus cyperoides)

Tekijem ( Cyperus cyperoides ) is a plant species in Cyperaceae, annual grasses that grow in seasonal wetlands, open or shaded fields, swamps, ponds, rice fields, roadsides, open forests, secondary forests and shrubs at altitudes up to 1,800 m in the tropics. C. cyperoides has an upright, triangular shape, 20-75 cm tall from a very short rhizome and has no stolon. The lanceolate-shaped leaves are narrow and long, the tips are pointed, slippery, shiny, green and grow at the bottom and at the top of the stem. The terminal flower appears on the tip of the stem, cylindrical spiklet shaped and green. Each stem has two to seven flowers, each of which has a short or long stem that grows at the end of the stem together with the leaves. Tekijem grows solitary or in small groups at a distance. Propagating using vegetative and generative methods using seeds. At least three sub-species are Cyperus cyperoides cyperoides , Cyperus cyperoides flavus and Cyperus cyperoides pseudoflavus . Th...