Scientific name
Ornithopus compressus
Strengths
- A nutritious, palatable, persistent legume.
- Tolerant of acid soils with high levels of aluminium.
- Well adapted to infertile deep sandy soils.
- Drought tolerant (deeper- root system than subterranean clover and pink serradella).
- Tolerates heavy grazing.
- Low bloat risk.
- Extremely tolerant of aphids, lucerne flea and red-legged earth mite at adult stage.
- Very high level of hard seed gives protection against false breaks.
- Competes well with weeds.
- Makes good quality hay and silage.
- Efficient nitrogen fixer.
- A number of suitable herbicides for weed control.
Limitations
- Not suited to alkaline soils.
- Not tolerant of high levels of exchangeable manganese in acid soils.
- Requires companion summer-growing species for all-year-round paddock production.
- Establishment can be slow if sowing with ‘hard seed’ and low sowing rates.
- Not suited to soils subject to prolonged waterlogging.
- Susceptible to heliothis.
- High seed cost.
Plant description
Yellow serradella
Plant:
Many-branched, finely hairy, annual legume, with a low (to 40cm), spreading growth habit with main growth in autumn, winter and spring. Deeper rooted than subterranean clover and pink serradella.
Stems:
Slender densely leafy stems, covered with fine, short white hairs.
Leaves:
Leaves also with fine, short white hairs, comprising 10 to 20 pairs of oblong-elliptical leaflets long and a single terminal leaflet, about 10 mm, up to l cm long.
Flowers:
Yellow pea-like flowers, about 5mm long, borne singly or in groups of up to 5 on stems jutting out from the leaves.
Pods:
Flattened, 2.5-4.0 cm long and 3mm wide, curved tapering into a hooked beak, splitting into 5 - 9 single-seeded segments at maturity; hard and blackish when ripe.
Seeds:
Yellow, oblong and flattened; about 176,000/kg (unhulled), or 352,000/kg (hulled).
Pasture type and use
Mainly used as a pasture plant, and suited for grazing, hay or silage. Useful as a pasture lasting 1-5 years as part of a phased pasture crop rotation. Will regenerate from seed after a short cropping period of 1-3 years. Can also be used as a longer term pasture in mixtures with perennial or annual grasses.
Where it grows
Yellow serradella
Rainfall
Yellow serradella is best suited to regions with 250 - 700 mm annual rainfall with a predominantly autumn-winter-spring distribution and relatively little summer rain.
Soils
It is best on deep, well-drained lighter to medium loam soils. While there are some variety differences, it is well-adapted to acid soils tolerating exchangeable aluminium of 35% of CEC (cation exchange capacity) or more. It is not well-adapted to soils with pH above 7.0 (CaCl2). It is very persistent on difficult light soils.
Temperature
Moderate frost tolerance.
Establishment
Companion species
Grasses: Italian ryegrass, consol lovegrass and Premier digit grass.
Legumes: subterranean clover, gland clover, rose clover, biserrula.
Sowing/planting rates as single species
5 - 7 kg/ha. It is very important to sow yellow serradella at a depth of less than 2 cm to obtain optimal establishment.
Yellow serradella flowers and seedpods
Sowing/planting rates in mixtures
1 - 5 kg/ha, depending on the mixture of pasture legume options available.
Sowing time
Yellow serradella should be sown as close to the break of season in autumn as possible.
Inoculation
Lupin/serradella inoculum (Group G or Group S, according to the source).
Fertiliser
Sow with 100 to 150 kg/ha superphosphate, or super/potash if on sandy soils.
Management
Grazing/cutting
Experience has shown yellow serradella to be as tolerant as subterranean clover to heavy grazing. However, it is important not to graze too hard during flowering, especially until seed reserves have built up. Under heavy winter grazing, yellow serradella adopts a prostrate growth habit, which protects it from over-grazing. It is very productive in spring, and hay or silage can be produced.
Seed production
It is a prolific seed producer, with seed yields ranging from 2 - 4 t/ha of pods. Seed is harvested using a conventional open-front grain harvester, preferably with a finger-reel. The pods require further treatments as the seed left inside the pods is hard seeded and will have germination rates of less than 10%. Yellow serradella must be dehulled and scarified in order to obtain the highly germinable seed that is best suited for pasture establishment.
See AGWEST Farnote No. 62/2003 “Serradella-growing and harvesting the seed”
Ability to spread
Generally limited. However, under intensive summer grazing, a small amount of seed may be eaten, and some of this is excreted in a viable form.
Harvesting of Yellow serradella
Weed potential
There have been no reported cases of yellow serradella spreading into native vegetation.
Major pests
Red-legged earth mites can cause damage until plants have three true leaves, and should be controlled. For seed crops, inspect for native bud worm (heliothis) and control if present in large numbers. Yellow serradella is not affected by lucerne flea and aphids.
Major diseases
Very few disease problems have been observed, although potential diseases include leaf spots, grey mould, and anthracnose.
Herbicide susceptibility
Grass weeds can usually be controlled with a selective herbicide. Broadstrike® (Flumetsulam), Spinnaker® (Imazethapyr), Raptor® (Imazamox) are registered for use in serradella pasture to control or suppress a variety of broad-leaved weeds. Yellow serradella is not tolerant of Simazine, Diuron, Sufonyl Ureas, Phenoxy herbicides and non selective knockdowns.
Animal production
Feeding value
Yellow serradella produces high quality forage in terms of dry matter digestibility, metabolisable energy (ME) and crude protein (CP). Levels of crude protein in the vegetative stage are typically around 25%, and of ME about 11.5 MJ/kg.
Palatability
Highly palatable.
Production potential
Spring herbage yields of yellow serradella in Western Australia can be as high as 10 t/ha, which compares favourably with French serradella, biserrula and subterranean clover. It can provide green feed for an extra 2 to 4 weeks more than subterranean clover.
Livestock disorders/toxicity
No problems reported.
Cultivars
Select cultivars on the basis of maturity, hard-seed levels and tolerance to soil aluminium.
| Group | Cultivar | Seed source/Information |
| Very early season, high hard-seed levels | Yelbeni | Guide to Australian Pasture LegumesTeague AustraliaSeed Distributors |
| Early season, high hard-seed levels | Charano |
SeedmarkPlantTech |
| Santorini | SeedmarkTeague AustraliaIrwin Hunter & Co | |
| Early season, medium hard-seed levels | King | Guide to Australian Pasture LegumesTeague Australia |
| Early-mid season, high hard-seed levels | Madeira | Australian Herbage Plant CultivarsWA Department of Agriculture & Food - Farmnote 30/98 |
| Elgara | Australian Herbage Plant Cultivars | |
| Mid-late season, high hard-seed levels | Avila | Australian Herbage Plant CultivarsTeague Australia |
Denotes that this variety is protected by Plant Breeder’s Rights Australia
Author and date
Angelo Loi
May 2007
