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The Oz Garden Gallery

Lablab bean

20 years ago

Dolichos lablab (lablab bean) which is a horrible coastal weed. Went to Cape Patterson near Phillip Island on the weekend and saw this shocker.

Trouble is, Cape Patterson is Environmental Weed Central so this is only one of many. I have never seen such a range of different weeds (all garden escapes) running

so rampant. {{gwi:2114093}}
(I have seen seeds of this menace for sale on eBay)

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Comments (6)

User
20 years ago
Amazing that, as up here in the North they are grown as a cover crop.
Usually sown in the Spring and dug in around mid-summer when they flower.
Just goes to show what one plant can do when grown out of its Environment.
By turning in a invasive weed. Shame that I do hope it can be cleared.
Cheers..MM.
TonyfromOz
20 years ago
Apologies for being pedantic, but I believe that Lomatia's "lablab" and the cover crop known to mistymorn are not the same thing.

Lomatia's pic looks like Dipogon lignosus (syn. Dolichos lignosus). Though very pretty, it can be quite weedy in coastal situations. As far as I know it's not regarded as useful for anything.

The lablab bean is Lablab purpureus (syn. Dolichos lablab) and it has edible beans. I doubt that it's weedy.
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ashmeri
20 years ago
We planted Dolichos Lablab (love that name)as cattle feed back in the past when we were farmers..
DH plants it under the fruit trees as it is a legume and sets some nitrogen in the soil, he digs it in when it flowers.
Marion
lomatia
Original Author
20 years ago
Yes Tony it is Dipogon lignosus. I actually inadvertently planted one in the garden from a plant that I had grown via seed from the SGAP seedbank in my "native days". I seem to remember the seed was labelled Kennedia prorepens? This has a pink flower and trifoliate leaves I think. Anyhow it got the chop very quickly.
TonyfromOz
20 years ago
Apologies for being pedantic, but I doubt that lomatia's "lablab bean" and the one mistymorn knows as a cover crop in Qld are the same plant.

Lomatia's pic looks to me like Dipogon lignosus (syn. Dolichos lignosus), which although quite pretty can become weedy in coastal areas of SE Aust. As far as I know it is not edible or otherwise useful.

It is smaller in leaves, flowers and pods than the true lablab bean, now called Lablab purpureus (syn. Dolichos lablab), which I suspect is the bean that mistymorn knows.
TonyfromOz
20 years ago
Well, what do you know, I looked at this 5 minutes ago and there was only one follow-up showing, so I assumed I had forgotten to hit the "submit" button, and posted my comments again.

When I looked just now, suddenly there were 5 follow-ups!

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