Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC.
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Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.
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Family
Fabaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Slender, high-climbing, pubescent. Petioles as long as the leaflets or shorter; leaflets thin, appressed-pubescent, somewhat silvery beneath, the terminal one rather long-stalked, ovate or rhombic-ovate, the lateral ones short-stalked, obliquely ovate, inequilateral; racemes several-many-flowered, elongated; calyx silvery-silky, about 1 cm. long. 4-cleft; corolla blue or purple; standard ovate; wings and keel about twice as long as the standard, 2-3 cm. long; pod narrowly oblong, slightly curved, about 6 cm. long and 1 cm. thick, densely covered with brittle stinging hairs.
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Distribution
Thickets and scrub-lands, New Providence near Nassau : Cuba to St. Thomas and Tobago: Jamaica: continental tropical America; Old World tropics. Dolley reports Mucuna it reus L., from the Bahamas but the plant has not been returned in any of the collections we have seen; the record probably refers to M. pruriens. Cow-Itch.
New Providence Bahamas South America| Cuba South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America| Jamaica South America|