Click on images to enlarge
habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
leaves (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
leaves (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of leaf with three leaflets (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of stem and leaf undersides (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
flowers (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of immature and mature fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie
mature fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
infestation growing in coastal vegetation (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
shrubby habit of a large plant (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of hairy younger stem (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
upper leaves with narrower leaflets (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of relatively narrow leaflets (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of leaflet undersides (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of pea-shaped flowers with reddish-orange markings (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
immature fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of immature fruit with purplish markings (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
Scientific Name
Crotalaria goreensis Guill. & Perr.
Family
Fabaceae (Queensland, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory)Fabaceae: sub-family Faboideae (New South Wales)Leguminosae (South Australia)Papilionaceae (Western Australia)
Common Names
gamba pea, gamba-pea, Gambia pea, rattlepod
Origin
Native to tropical Africa (i.e. Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, the Gambia, Togo, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia and Zimbabwe).
Naturalised Distribution
Widely naturalised in northern and eastern Australia (i.e. in northern Western Australia, the northern parts of the Northern Territory, northern and eastern Queensland and the coastal districts of northern New South Wales).
Naturalised overseas in Madagascar, Asia (i.e. India, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea) and South America (i.e. Brazil, French Guiana and Guyana).
Notes
This short-lived (i.e. annual) species was originally introduced as a green manure crop. It is now regarded as an environmental weed in northern Australia (i.e. northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia) where it can form dense stands in natural communities.
Gambia pea (Crotalaria goreensis) invades disturbed open woodlands, grasslands, floodplains and river banks and can prevent the regeneration of native species in these habitats.
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