Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

RATTLEBOX

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Crotalaria sagittalis L.

Cherokee County, Kansas

Annual or perennial

Height: 4-16 inches

Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August, September

Also Called:

Arrowhead rattlebox, arrow crotalaria.

Stems:

Erect or ascending, slender, simple or busy-branched above, with spreading or loose hairs.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, mostly sessile, lanceolate or linear to elliptic, .6 to 2.8 inches long, 1/5 to 3/5 inch wide; surfaces pubescent; stipules on lower leaves minute or absent; stipules on upper leaves nearly size of leaves, appear as narrow, downward-pointed arrowheads.

Inflorescences:

Raceme, 1-4-flowered, .4 to 1.6 inch long, in leaf axils and terminal.

Flowers:

Calyx 5-lobed, 1/3 to 2/5 inch long; lobes unequal, long-tapering to points; corolla papilionaceous, 1/3 to 1/2 inch long, yellow, fading whitish; petals 5; banner egg-shaped, 1/4 to 1/3 inch long; wings and keel shorter; keel petals united; stamens 10, filaments united into 1 group; 5 filaments short, anthers linear; 5 filaments longer, anthers nearly spherical.

Fruits:

Pod, oblong, .8 to 1.4 inch long, .25 to .5 inch wide, much inflated, becoming blackish and leathery when mature; seeds 1/10 to 1/8 inch wide, slanting heart-shaped, shiny, grey-brown.

Habitat:

Prairies, open wooded slopes, waste areas, fallow fields; dry, sandy or rocky open ground.

Distribution:

East half and Seward and Hamilton counties in southwest Kansas

Origin:

Native

Toxicity:

Toxic to horses when eaten fresh or in dried hay. Symptoms are weakness, slow weight loss, stupor, poor appetite, and aimless pacing. The seeds are toxic to pigs and poultry.

Uses:

Native Americans used the root to treat venereal disease.

Comments:

Rattlebox is somewhat weedy. From Greek krotalon "rattle" alluding to the loose seeds in the pods.

Rattlebox flower