Stylo

Stylosanthes guianensis, commonly called stylo or Brazilian lucerne, is a short-lived perennial or sub-shrubby legume in the family Fabaceae, native to tropical Central and South America from Mexico to Argentina and naturalised widely in the tropics as a pasture plant. It is a slender, often sprawling herb 0.6-1.5 m tall, with thin branching stems and trifoliate leaves whose narrowly lanceolate leaflets are 1-4 cm long, prominently veined, and slightly bristly. Small yellow to orange pea-flowers are produced in dense terminal spikes, each subtended by a tiny bract, and are followed by small one-seeded loments. The species fixes atmospheric nitrogen and tolerates acid, low-phosphorus soils, which has made it one of the most important tropical forage legumes for cattle in South America, Africa, Southeast Asia and northern Australia.