Location in BHU campus :Planted in Ayurvedic garden .Can also be seen growing near Chhittupur gate
Botanical name : Sesbania grandiflora Pers
Family : Fabaceae
Vernacular / local Name : Bengali - Agati, agusta, bak, bagphal; Gujarati – Agatoio; Hindi - Bak, agasti, basna, hatiya; Kannada - Agase, agache; Malayalam- Akatthi; Marathi – Madga, agasta, shevari; Oriya – Buko, ogosti; Sanskrit – Agati, agasti, anari; Tamil – Agathi, peragathi; Telugu – Avasinana.
English / Trade names : Agathi, Swamp Pea, Sesban.
A small soft-wooded tree, 6-9 m high. Leaves 15-30 cm long, pinnate; leaflets 21-41, linear-oblong, glabrous. Flowers 5-8 cm long, showy, white, or yellow, in 2-4 flowered axillary recemes. Fruit a pod, usually 25-30 cm long, pendulous and curved, compressed.
Flowering and Fruiting:: December-March
The flowers are sacred to Shiva. The leaves are offered in the name of the celebrated Sage Athreya on Saptarshi Vrata.
It is grown as a support for pepper and betal vines and as a shade plant for coconut seedlings, and as windbreak in banana plantations. Tender leaves, pods and flowers are eaten as vegetable. Tender shoots and leaves are also fed to livestock and poultry. Bark yields a fibre. Wood is used for preparing toys. Juice of bark is used for toughening nets and tanning and for colouring mats. Juice of the roots is given with honey as an expectorant.