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Crotalaria retusa; photograph (c) yatesy, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) yatesy, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-01

Crotalaria retusa L.

Rattleweed; Big Yellow Popbush; Devil-bean; Rattlebox

Fabaceae · Somalia, Kenya +39

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Crotalaria retusa, photograph (c) yatesy, some rights reserved (CC BY)Crotalaria retusa, photograph (c) Paulo Nogueira, some rights reserved (CC BY)Crotalaria retusa, photograph (c) Toby Y, some rights reserved (CC BY)Crotalaria retusa, photograph (c) Lachlan Copeland, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Crotalaria retusa, photograph (c) Roland Muench, some rights reserved (CC BY)Crotalaria retusa, photograph (c) Roland Muench, some rights reserved (CC BY) 79 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
14.8°C
Record low 11.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Oct, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,344mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–45DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September (December to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Crotalaria retusa is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by various common names including devil-bean, rattleweed, shack shack, and wedge-leaf rattlepod. It is poisonous to livestock, and contaminates human food. Its original native range is unclear, probably including tropical Asia, Africa and Australia. It has been introduced as a crop plant in many tropical areas and has escaped from cultivation to become a troublesome weed; it is listed as a noxious weed in several US states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and is listed as an invasive weed in India, Cuba, and Cocos Island. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Crotalaria retusa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Crotalaria

Crotalaria is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae commonly known as rattlepods. The genus includes over 700 species of herbaceous plants and shrubs. Africa is the continent with the majority of Crotalaria species, which are mainly found in damp grassland, especially in floodplains, depressions and along edges of swamps and rivers, but also in deciduous bush land, roadsides and fields. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Crotalaria", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (894 mm of 1,167 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.5 °C against a yearly mean of 26.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

1,167 mm in the median year at the habitat, 894 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 269 mm, driest month August at 4 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 710 mm to 2,765 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,344 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,167 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.8 °C, the absolute minimum 11.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 13.5 °C to 24.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.3 °C in November and December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -2 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Crotalaria retusa through the yearWarmest months January, February, March, April, October, November and December, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 17.8 °C; 1,167 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°38.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 31–45RH 57–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 186 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C30 / 26–3530 / 26–3430 / 26–3530 / 26–3529 / 24–3228 / 23–3028 / 22–3029 / 22–3229 / 22–3530 / 23–3830 / 24–3830 / 26–37
Night °C25 / 21–2625 / 21–2624 / 21–2623 / 20–2621 / 18–2618 / 14–2518 / 14–2418 / 15–2421 / 17–2524 / 18–2525 / 19–2725 / 20–27
Rain mm269 / 167–451244 / 135–508190 / 96–36798 / 19–23725 / 7–2069 / 2–1635 / 2–1674 / 0–16911 / 2–19038 / 16–18383 / 45–224191 / 109–316
DLI39 / 34–4438 / 34–4138 / 35–4037 / 33–3834 / 28–3531 / 25–3332 / 26–3537 / 30–3942 / 35–4344 / 37–4645 / 35–4742 / 33–46
RH %64 / 55–6964 / 57–6962 / 52–6960 / 44–6858 / 43–6757 / 43–6657 / 40–6657 / 39–6558 / 39–6658 / 41–6660 / 46–6762 / 51–68

Records on both sides of the equator: the 39 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 186 cells that remain: the 153 at least 10° south and the 33 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 186 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (224 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2170:4488 (-18.525, 44.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 186 distinct grid cells holding 224 of the 269 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (39 cells poleward of 10° north, 153 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2170:4488 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -18.50_44.375, lapse-corrected -2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 89 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeSomalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Hainan, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Laccadive Is., Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Northern Territory, Western Australia · introduced: Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina, Gambia, The, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola, Seychelles, Pakistan, Andaman Is., Cocos (Keeling) I., New South Wales, Queensland, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Nauru, New Caledonia, Samoa, Line Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-14.467, 132.267 · in the densest population, 128 records (31% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual, perennial or subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 417 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 224 of them in the land cells it reads, of 269 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 335 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 1087 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 148 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 417 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Crotalaria retusa, photograph 1did not loadCrotalaria retusa, photograph 2did not loadCrotalaria retusa, photograph 3did not loadCrotalaria retusa, photograph 4did not loadCrotalaria retusa, photograph 5did not loadCrotalaria retusa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) yatesy, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Paulo Nogueira, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Toby Y, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Lachlan Copeland, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Roland Muench, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Melaleuca dealbata Melaleuca dealbata Blue Paperbark Photo: CC BY, Roland MuenchAbrus precatorius Abrus precatorius Rosary pea Photo: CC BY, xanderferretCapparis sepiaria Capparis sepiaria Capparaceae Photo: CC BY, Henry de LangeMemecylon pauciflorum Memecylon pauciflorum Poor-flower tree Photo: CC0, author not statedPhyllanthus cernuus Phyllanthus cernuus Phyllanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioLindsaea ensifolia Lindsaea ensifolia Graceful necklace fern Photo: CC BY, Lucas Christofides

Other Crotalaria 26 in the reference

Crotalaria agatiflora Crotalaria agatiflora Canarybird-bush Photo: CC BY, Efrain FreireCrotalaria calycina Crotalaria calycina Hairy Rattlepod Photo: CC0, author not statedCrotalaria capensis Crotalaria capensis Cape Rattle-Pod Photo: CC BY, jeanjacquesgodonCrotalaria cunninghamii Crotalaria cunninghamii Parrot pea Photo: CC BY, Hugo InnesCrotalaria eremaea Crotalaria eremaea Bluebush pea Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandCrotalaria incana Crotalaria incana Shakeshake Photo: CC0, author not statedCrotalaria juncea Crotalaria juncea Sunn hemp Photo: CC BY, Nick DotyCrotalaria lanceolata Crotalaria lanceolata Lanceleaf rattlebox Photo: CC BY, carterCrotalaria longirostrata Crotalaria longirostrata Longbeak rattlebox Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezCrotalaria maypurensis Crotalaria maypurensis Fabaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedCrotalaria medicaginea Crotalaria medicaginea Trefoil rattlepod Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandCrotalaria micans Crotalaria micans Caracas rattlebox Photo: CC BY, Robin White all 27 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Crotalaria retusa subsp. maritima; Crotalaria retusa var. maritima. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania +38
Wild records
417 in range · 335 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 30 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (19 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 10 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -18.50_44.375, lapse-corrected -2 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 179 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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