Vigna, Creeping
(Vigna parkeri)

• perennial
• needs well-distributed rainfall above 1100 mm
• for coastal sands to red clays
• compatible with vigorous grasses.

Cv. Shaw can be a useful legume for well-grazed pastures in subtropical south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales, or on tropical tablelands. It needs well-distributed rainfall of more than 1100 mm a year, but can succumb to disease in the wet season; it dies out in the hot and wet conditions of the tropical lowlands.

Shaw can tolerate only short periods of drought, but will regenerate from seed in older pastures with a reserve of seed in the soil. Its leaves and stems are killed by frost, but the plant will regrow from the crown.

Shaw will grow on a range of soils, from sands to heavier, but well-drained, red clays, especially on hill slopes, and can tolerate moderately low fertility and pH if fertilised with superphosphate and molybdenum.

Under heavy grazing, Shaw will form a dense mat rooting down from the creeping stems; it will also grow upwards into the companion grass under lighter grazing. It is compatible wtih some of the aggressive creeping grasses such as kikuyu, pangloa and bahia.

The seed should be scarified before planting into a well-prepared seed-bed no later than February. Seedlings will nodulate with native rhizobium, but are slow to establish and to set seed in the first year.