Onobrychis

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Sainfoin" redirects here. For Royal Navy ship, see HMS Sainfoin (F183). For the racehorse, see Sainfoin (horse).

Onobrychis
Flowering Onobrychis arenaria
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Tribe: Hedysareae
Genus: Onobrychis
Mill. (1754)
Species[1]

Some 206, see text.

Synonyms[1]
  • Dendrobrychis Galushko (1976)
  • Echinolobium Desv. (1813)
  • Eriocarpaea Bertol. (1843)
  • Xanthobrychis Galushko (1979)

Onobrychis, the sainfoins, are a genus of Eurasian

calcareous soils
.

Description, ecology and uses

Sainfoins are mostly

pods
bear prominent spikes or similar protrusions in many species, enabling them to cling to the fur of large mammals and be thus distributed.

These highly nutritious plants were an important

arid steppe belt of Eurasia, sainfoins are difficult to establish as pasture, are not persistent in grassland, and only yield one crop of hay or seeds per year. Thus they are seldom grown in any significant extent, though O. viciifolia
is met with somewhat more regularly.

Onobrychis species are used as food plants by the

Damon Blue (Polyommatus damon) butterfly
.

Nutritional benefits and the latest research

Sainfoin provides a superb forage for grazing animals and voluntary intake of sainfoin by

grass. Unlike many other legumes, it is non-bloating and is known to have anthelmintic properties, so reducing the problems associated with livestock worms. Sainfoin contains condensed tannins, and it is these that protect animals against bloat. Sainfoin has also been shown to increase protein
absorption. This, combined with its other health benefits, mean that animals grazing sainfoin have very rapid liveweight gains, so young stock can be finished sooner and with very good carcass grades. Sainfoin is therefore extremely useful to low input and organic farmers. Yields can be very high at around 16t DM per hectare.

Methods and research techniques have been studied and developed to look specifically at Sainfoin polyphenols which include tannins and flavonoids. There are significant differences between Sainfoin types and this will lead to further development of Sainfoin plant breeding.

One method for improving

cows
. In producing animals the diet will comprise different forage sources and supplement feeds.

Sainfoin is seldom used as a pure crop and is generally introduced in pasture in a

grass-legume mix with cocksfoot (Dactylis), ryegrass (Lolium) or with other legumes such as red clover, white clover or lucerne. Results have shown the choice of the variety is important. A variety like Esparcette, characterised by the highest condensed tannin content, may provide beneficial effects with a lower proportion in a mixture with other legumes. Preserving legumes, as silage, is a good way to provide an on-farm source of home-grown energy and protein, offers advantages over traditional haymaking, being less weather-dependent, and allows a high quality of forage during the harvesting period. In particular, wrapped silage bales of sainfoin have great potential in animal nutrition and can be used by farmers, as found that condensed tannin
effects were not reduced by this mode of preservation.

Etymology

Onobrychis means "devoured by donkeys", from Ancient Greek ónos (ὄνος, "donkey") and brýkein (βρύκειν, "to eat greedily"). This refers to sainfoin's good properties as a forage plant for large mammalian herbivores.

Sainfoin is derived from

soil scientist Olivier de Serres
:

"The herb is called sain-foin' in France, in Italy herba medica, in Provence and the Languedoc luzerne. From the inordinate praise the plant has been given, for its medical virtues and for fattening the livestock that graze on it, comes the term sain."[3]

In northern European languages that have been less influenced by

sweetvetches (Hedysarum). Examples are Danish esparsette, Dutch esparcette, German Esparsette, Lithuanian esparceta, Polish sparceta, Russian 'espartset (Эспарцет) and Swedish esparsett. Meanwhile, the Occitan name of sainfoin, luzerne, has in many languages come to mean species of the related genus Medicago, in particular Alfalfa
(M. sativa).

The native name of the cock's head (O. caput-galli) is one of the few words of the extinct Dacian language that have been recorded. The Dacians called this plant aniarsexe or aniassexie.

In George Orwell's Coming Up for Air, travelling salesman George Bowling regularly reminisces about the smell of sainfoin in his father's seed shop in Lower Binfield.

List of species

The following species are considered at least provisionally valid by the International Legume Database & Information Service; some notable subspecies are also listed:[4]

O. alba ssp. calcarea
9) Onobrychis humilis ssp. humilis 10) O. conferta ssp. hispanica, 11) O. montana, 12) O. arenaria ssp. tommasinii
13) O. oxyodonta, 14) O. inermis, 15) Cock's Head (O. caput-galli), 16) O. aequidentata
Drawing of fruiting Cock's Head (O. caput-galli) stalk
Onobrychis viciifolia inflorescence
MHNT

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Onobrychis Mill. Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  2. ^ Muẓaffariyān (1996)
  3. ^ L'herbe appellée en France sain-foin, en Italie herba medica, en Provence et Languedoc luzerne. De l'excessive louange qu'on a donné à ceste plante, à cause de sa vertu medecinale et engraissante le bestail qui s'en paist, vient ce mot de sain.
  4. ^ ILDIS (2005)

References

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