378 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 
Stizolobium giganteum. ‘ SEA-BEAN. GREAT OX-EY1 BEAN. 
Family Fabaceae. 
Loca NAMEs.—Akankan difigkulo (Guam); Nipay, Lipay (Philippines); Tu tai 
buaa (Tahiti); Faso-gasuga (Solomon Island); Kakatea (Rarotonga); Kaeéé 
(Hawaii); Ojo de venado (Spanish). 
A woody climber with slender glabrous branches, compound tendrils, and trifolio- 
late leaves with long petioles; leaflets subcoriaceous, glabrous, the terminal one 
oblong-cuspidate, 12 to 15 em. long by 8 cm. broad, the lateral ones very oblique; 
flowers pale greenish yellow, 12 to 30 in long-peduncled, drooping, close racemes; 
pedicels 2.5 em. long; calyx-tube campanulate; two upper teeth connate, truncate; 
lowest longer than the middle ones; corolla 3.5 em. long; standard reflexed, not more 
than half as long as the rostrate keel; keel not abruptly inflexed at the end; stamens 
diadelphous, the upper one free, the rest united; anthers dimorphous; pod broadly 
winged down both sutures, but not plaited on the faces, 8 to 15 em. by 5 em., flat on 
the faces, copiously clothed with abundant deciduous yellow-brown irritating bristles, 
2 to 6-seeded; seeds large, orbicular, hard, bony, uniformly brown or with black 
lines, the raphe extending over three-fourths of the circumference. 
The seeds are sometimes used as watch charms; powdered, they are used as an 
aphrodisiac. This plant is widely spread in Polynesia, tropical Asia, and eastern 
Australia. It was first collected in Guam by Gaudichaud. Grows on the edge of 
the forests and in thickets along the roadside, sometimes climbing over high trees. 
REFERENCES: 
Stizolobium giganteum (Willd.) Spreng. Syst. Ant. 4: Cur, Post, 281, 1827. 
Dolichos giganteus Willd. Sp. PL. 2: 1041. 1801. 
Mucuna gigantea DC. Prod, 2: 405, 1825. 
Stizolobium pruriens. CowhaGe. Cowircr. 
LocaL NAMEs.—Picapica (Spanish); Nipay (Philippines). 
The pods of this species are devoid of plaits or wings, but have a longitudinal rib 
along the whole length of each valve, and are densely covered with orange-brown, 
brittle, irritant hairs pointing backward and easily detached. They are 6 to 8 em. 
long and about 1.5 em. broad, linear, blunt and curved at both ends. They are 4 to 
6-seeded with partitions between them; seed small (about 6 mm. in diameter) ovoid, 
compressed, brownish mottled with black, the hilum short, oblong, not half the 
length of the seed. The plant is a semiwoody twiner with large trifoliolate leaves 
and purplish papilionaceous flowers growing in slender racemes. Branches usually 
clothed with short white, deflexed hairs; leaflets on short thick, hairy stalks, rachis 
8 to 13 em. long, sparingly deflexed-hairy, stipules linear, setaceous-hairy; terminal 
leaflet smallest and rhomboid-oval, lateral ones very obliquely deltoid, all acute, 
mucronate, covered with silvery hair beneath. 
The hairs of the pod, known as cowhage in medicine, are mixed with honey or 
molasses and given as a vermifuge. The powdered seeds are used in India as an 
aphrodisiac, and the young green pods are cooked and eaten as a vegetable. 
REFERENCES: 
Stizolobium pruriens (Stickman) Medic. Vorles. Churpf. Phys. Ges. 2: 399. 1787 
Dolichos pruriens Stickman, Herb. Amb. 1754; Amoen. Acad. 4: 132. 1759, 
Mucuna pruriens DC. Prod, 2: 405, 1825. 
Strand plants. 
The principal species growing on the shore of the island are the following: 
Barringtonia racemosa. —Larigacisag. 
Barringtonia speciosa.—Puting. 
Bruguiera gymnorhiza.—Mang!e macho. 
Canavali obtusifolium.—Seaside bean. 
Casuarina equisetifolia.—Savo. 
Cocos nucifera.—Nivoy. 
