Desmodium Intortum
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''Desmodium intortum'', known as greenleaf desmodium and also as beggarlice along with other members of its genus, is a species of flowering plant in the genus ''
Desmodium ''Desmodium'' is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae, sometimes called tick-trefoil, tick clover, hitch hikers or beggar lice. There are dozens of species and the delimitation of the genus has shifted much over time. Species are distr ...
'', native to Mexico, Central America, northern South America, the Galápagos, Haiti and Jamaica. A nitrogen-fixing
fodder Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food ...
crop, it has been introduced to the rest of the world's tropics, including Africa, India, Australia, New Guinea and Taiwan ''Desmodium intortum'' is used in push–pull agricultural pest management since it contains potent
secondary metabolites Secondary metabolites, also called ''specialised metabolites'', ''secondary products'', or ''natural products'', are organic compounds produced by any lifeform, e.g. bacteria, archaea, fungi, animals, or plants, which are not directly involved ...
that are released into the soil and aerially. Inter-cropped in
maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...
and
sorghum ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the Poaceae, grass genus ''Sorghum (genus), Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain i ...
fields, it repels '' Chilo partellus'', a stem-boring grass moth, and suppresses witchweeds, including Asiatic witchweed (''Striga asiatica'') and purple witchweed (''S. hermonthica'').


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15240093 intortum Forages Plants described in 1920