Crotalaria spectabilis Roth

Showy Rattlebox

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Showy Rattlebox is an introduced herbaceous annual in the Bean Family (Fabaceae). It is native to Southeast Asia (Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia), but is widely naturalized around the world. Showy Rattlebox occurs throughout Alabama, but is most common in the southern half of the state. It occurs around old home sites, in pastures and fields, on roadsides, and in disturbed forests. It is an annual with a tap root. Stems are 2-5 feet in height, branched above the middle, green in color, glabrous, and often glaucous. The leaves are alternate, petiolate, oblanceolate to elliptic in outline, glabrous above and pubescent or glabrous below, and often glaucous. Flowers are produced in terminal racemes. Each raceme has 20-30 papilionaceous flowers. The flowers are bright lemon yellow in color with red-purple veins at the base of the standard petal. The fruit is an inflated legume with 10-25 seed. As the fruit ages, the seed detach within the inflated legume, making it rattle when moved. Showy Rattlebox has been planted as an ornamental and for erosion control. All parts of the plant contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids, and are toxic if consumed in quantity. It is often responsible for livestock poisonings in south Alabama. Interestingly, the plant is also toxic to nematodes, and has been used as a cover crop in rotations to reduce the presence of nematodes. Showy Rattlebox is easily grown from seed. It prefers a well-draining, sandy soil in full sun. It reseeds readily and responds well to soil disturbance or fire.--A. Diamond

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Not Native

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