Botanical Name: Arachis pintoi
Common Names: Pinto Peanut syn. Amarillo Forage Peanut
Plant Family: Fabaceae
Plant Description
Pinto Peanut is a low growing, perennial legume that forms a thick mat 20-30 cm deep; the flowers are yellow.
Ecology: It is ideally suited to the high rainfall (over 1000 mm) frost-free areas of the subtropics. This plant has a predominately warm season growth pattern, it is drought hardy, tolerant of shading and has some frost tolerance.
Uses: Pinto's makes an ideal living mulch for orchards in the high rainfall frost-free areas of the subtropics. It tolerates competition from grass and effectively excludes broadleaf weeds, fixes nitrogen and tolerates low mowing. It is best left unmown in late summer to early spring in the first year. This allows sufficient depth of groundcover to prevent weed invasion in the dormant season. It protects the soil surface from erosion and improves soil structure.
Planting Details
Recommended Planting Time: In subtropical areas sow October to January; in the tropics sow during the wet season.
Spacing: Plant at 35 cm apart.
Details: Pinto Peanut will also establish readily from cuttings during the wet season. Cuttings 15 to 20 cm long buried 2 - 3 cm in soil with a few cm protruding will establish quickly in showery weather in late summer.
