''Neonotonia wightii'', the perennial soybean, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

, native to subSaharan Africa, Yemen, India, and Sri Lanka, and widely introduced as a

forage Forage is a plant material (mainly plant leaves and stems) eaten by grazing livestock. Historically, the term ''forage'' has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used m ...

in Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, northern Argentina, the

Mascarene Islands The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Their na ...

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia, historically known as Malaya and also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, is the western part of Malaysia that comprises the southern part of the Malay Peninsula on Mainland Southeast Asia and the list of isla ...

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, Queensland and New South Wales in Australia, and

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

. It is shade tolerant.

Subtaxa

The following subtaxa are accepted: *''Neonotonia wightii'' var. ''longicauda'' (Schweinf.) J.A.Lackey *''Neonotonia wightii'' var. ''mearnsii'' (De Wild.) J.A.Lackey *''Neonotonia wightii'' subsp. ''petitiana'' (A.Rich.) J.A.Lackey *''Neonotonia wightii'' subsp. ''pseudojavanica'' (Taub.) J.A.Lackey *''Neonotonia wightii'' subsp. ''wightii''

References

Phaseoleae Forages Flora of West Tropical Africa Flora of West-Central Tropical Africa Flora of Northeast Tropical Africa Flora of East Tropical Africa Flora of South Tropical Africa Flora of Southern Africa Flora of Yemen Flora of India (region) Flora of Sri Lanka Plants described in 1977 {{Phaseoleae-stub