Hedysarum is a genus of the botanical

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Fabaceae

Fabaceae

The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, is a large and economically important family of flowering plants. The group is the third largest land plant family, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with 730 genera and over 19,400 species...

, consisting of about 309 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of annual or perennial herb

Herb

Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...

s in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

, and North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

.

Description

Hedysarum leaves are odd-pinnate

Pinnate

Pinnate is a term used to describe feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis in plant or animal structures, and comes from the Latin word pinna meaning "feather", "wing", or "fin". A similar term is pectinate, which refers to a comb-like arrangement of parts...

, with entire leaflet

Leaflet

A leaflet in botany is a part of a compound leaf. A leaflet may resemble an entire leaf, but it is not borne on a stem as a leaf is, but rather on a vein of the whole leaf. Compound leaves are common in many plant families...

s (no notches or indentations). The stipule

Stipule

In botany, stipule is a term coined by Linnaeus which refers to outgrowths borne on either side of the base of a leafstalk...

s are free or connate, and stipels (secondary stipules) are absent. The inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

s are peduncled

Peduncle (botany)

In botany, a peduncle is a stem supporting an inflorescence, or after fecundation, an infructescence.The peduncle is a stem, usually green and without leaves, though sometimes colored or supporting small leaves...

 raceme

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

s or heads. Bract

Bract

In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...

s are small, with bracteoles below the calyx

Sepal

A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms . Collectively the sepals form the calyx, which is the outermost whorl of parts that form a flower. Usually green, sepals have the typical function of protecting the petals when the flower is in bud...

, and calyx teeth subequal. The petal

Petal

Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They often are brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. Together, all of the petals of a flower are called a corolla. Petals are usually accompanied by another set of special leaves called sepals lying...

s are pink, purplish, yellow, or whitish. Vexillum

Vexillum

The vexillum was a flag-like object used in the Classical Era of the Roman Empire. The word is itself a diminutive for the Latin word, velum, sail, which confirms the historical evidence that vexilla were literally "little sails" i.e. flag-like standards...

 is longer than the wings, with an obtuse keel longer or rarely shorter than the wings. Stamen

Stamen

The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...

s are diadelphous, 9+1, and anthers uniform. Ovary is 2-8-ovuled. Fruit is a lomentum, with segments glabrous, pubescent, bristly, or spiny.

Uses

Hedysarum species are used as food plants by the larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

e of some Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

 (moth and butterfly) species including Coleophora accordella

Coleophora

Coleophora is a very large genus of moths of the family Coleophoridae. It contains some 1,350 described species. The genus is represented on all continents, but the majority are found in the Nearctic and Palaearctic regions...

. Some species, such as Hedysarum alpinum

Hedysarum alpinum

Hedysarum alpinum is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name alpine sweetvetch. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring throughout the northern latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere...

also known as Alpine Sweetvetch, were eaten by the Inuit

Inuit

The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...

 to help ward off the effects of scurvy

Scurvy

Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...

 due to it being rich in vitamin C

Vitamin C

Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid or L-ascorbate is an essential nutrient for humans and certain other animal species. In living organisms ascorbate acts as an antioxidant by protecting the body against oxidative stress...

, containing about 21 mg/100g. Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

 also called the telegraph plant a Hedysarum.

In his book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer is an American writer and mountaineer, primarily known for his writing about the outdoors and mountain-climbing...

 speculates that Christopher McCandless

Christopher McCandless

Christopher Johnson McCandless was an American hitchhiker who adopted the name Alexander Supertramp and hiked into the Alaskan wilderness in April 1992 with little food and equipment, hoping to live for a time in solitude...

 died from eating seeds of H. alpinum, which Krakauer further speculates to contain swainsonine

Swainsonine

Swainsonine is an indolizine alkaloid. It is a potent inhibitor of Golgi alpha-mannosidase II, an immunomodulator, and a potential chemotherapy drug...

.

Selected species

• Hedysarum abyssinicum
• Hedysarum acayucense
• Hedysarum aculeolatum
• Hedysarum acuminatum
• Hedysarum acutifolium
• Hedysarum adhaerens
• Hedysarum adscendens
• Hedysarum aequidentatum
• Hedysarum ahilum
• Hedysarum aikini
• Hedysarum aikinianum
• Hedysarum alabukense
• Hedysarum alaicum
• Hedysarum alamani
• Hedysarum alaschanicum
• Hedysarum alatum
• Hedysarum albiflorum
• Hedysarum album
• Hedysarum algeriense
• Hedysarum algidum
• Hedysarum alhagi
• Hedysarum alopecuroides
• Hedysarum alpinum
• Hedysarum altaicum
• Hedysarum amankutanicum
• Hedysarum americanum
• Hedysarum ammoxylon
• Hedysarum ancistrocarpum
• Hedysarum ancyrense
• Hedysarum angrenicum
• Hedysarum angustifolium
• Hedysarum annuum
• Hedysarum anomalum
• Hedysarum antitauricum
• Hedysarum aparines
• Hedysarum aquaticum
• Hedysarum arborescens
• Hedysarum arboreum
• Hedysarum arbuscula
• Hedysarum arcticum
• Hedysarum arenarium
• Hedysarum argentatum
• Hedysarum argenteum
• Hedysarum argyreum
• Hedysarum argyrophyllum
• Hedysarum armenium
• Hedysarum armenum
• Hedysarum articulatum
• Hedysarum ascendens
• Hedysarum asperum
• Hedysarum astragaloides
• Hedysarum atlanticum
• Hedysarum atomarium
• Hedysarum atropatanum
• Hedysarum aucheri
• Hedysarum aureum
• Hedysarum auriculatum
• Hedysarum australe
• Hedysarum austrokurilense
• Hedysarum austrosibiricum
• Hedysarum axillare
• Hedysarum coronarium
  Hedysarum coronarium
  Hedysarum coronarium is a perennial herb native to Northern Africa and Spain, cultivated for animal fodder and hay, and for honey production....
  
  
• Hedysarum sulphurescens
  Hedysarum sulphurescens
  Hedysarum sulphurescens, the yellow sweetvetch, is a perennial herb species.Leucocyanidin reductase uses 2,3-trans-3,4-cis-leucocyanidin to produce -catechin and is the first enzyme in the proanthocyanidins -specific pathway. Its activity has been measured in leaves, flowers, and seeds of H....