English: Devil Bean.
Region: pantropical.
Habitat: coastal grassland, along rivers, waste places and fields, roadsides, dump sites, urban areas; elevations up to 1500 metres; open places in deciduous dipterocarp forests; sunny position; dry to moist, well-drained soils.
Content: pyrrolizidine alkaloids: monocrotaline, retrorsine, retronecine, liver and lung toxicity; carcinogenic.
Culture: invasive, in Hawaii.
Use: green manure, fibre crop; medicine; materials; ornamental; flowers and leaves as sweet tasting food, vegetable; seeds roasted and dehulled for food.
BotanyErect, annual, or short-lived perennial herb; more or less woody stems; 60 - 120cm tall.
Fruit: seedpods, with 10 - 20 yellow-brown to blackish heart-shaped seeds; about 5 mm x 3 mm.