378 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



Stizolobium giganteum. Sea-bean. Great ox-eyu bean. 



Family Fabaceae. 



Local names. — Akankan dangkulo (Guam); Nipay, Lipay (Philippines); Tu tai 



buaa (Tahiti); Faso-gasuga (Solomon Island); Kakatea (Rarotonga); Kaeee" 



(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 cm. 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 cm. long; calyx-tube campanulate; tw r o upper teeth connate, truncate; 



lowest longer than the middle ones; corolla 3.5 cm. 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 cm. by 5 cm., 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 

 Austi'alia. 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. PI. 2:1041.1801. 

 Mucuna gigantea DC. Prod. 2:405. 1825. 

 Stizolobium pruriens. Cowhage. Cowitch. 



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 cm. 

 long and about 1.5 cm. broad, linear, blunt and curved at both ends. They are 4 to 

 6-seeded wdth 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 cm. 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. — Langaasag. 

 Barringtonia speciosa. — Puting. 

 Bruguiera gymnorhiza. — Mangle macho. 

 Canavali obtusifolium.— Seaside bean. 

 Casuarina equisetifolia. — Sago. 

 Cocos nucifera. — Nivog. 



