Abstract:
The diversity of legumes, indigenous to South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland is reported using
recorded descriptive and distribution data. A total of 24 tribes, 118 genera and 1662 species were
documented with the majority of genera belonging to subfamily Faboideae, tribe Phaseoleae, and the
majority of species to tribe Crotalarieae. In terms of distribution patterns, most species were present in
the Savanna Biome and Central Bushveld Bioregion. Even though most tribes contain species with
secondary metabolites (mainly non-protein amino acids), tribes containing poisonous species are far
fewer. Herbs are the key growth form, followed by shrubs, dwarf shrubs and trees. The majority of
species are perennials. A map representing the collection intensity for the study area showed that the
majority of legumes species were collected in the Fynbos, Savanna and Grassland Biome. It is
concluded that indigenous South African legumes are extremely diverse and this denotes the
importance of further investigating their forage potential or use in other agricultural practices.
