BIODIVERSITAS ISSN: 1412-033X Volume 21, Number 12, December 2020 E-ISSN: 2085-4722 Pages: 5927-5946 DOI: 10.13057/biodiv/d211258 Review: Winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) cropping systems GRAHAM E. EAGLETON Permanent address: 23 Mulhall Street, Wagstaffe, NSW 2257, Australia, email:
[email protected] Manuscript received: 15 November 2020. Revision accepted: 29 November 2020. Abstract. Eagleton GE. 2020. Review: Winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) cropping systems. Biodiversitas 21: 5927-5946. Winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (L.) DC.) is a rambling, nitrogen-rich, leguminous crop of the Old-World tropics. This review of winged bean (WB) within cropping systems of Southeast Asia and Melanesia revisited four traditional roles that the crop has played: as a minor courtyard vegetable of villages and suburbs throughout the region; as a popular tuber crop in the irrigated plains of Tada-U township in Central Myanmar; as a companion crop in the mixed garden fields of Wamena in Indonesian New Guinea; and as a niche tuber crop in rotation with sweet potato near Goroka in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Drawing upon such traditions, researchers since the 1970s have identified potential new roles for winged bean. In Malaysia, vegetable pod yields up to 35 t ha-1 over a 25-week growing period have been obtained from solidly trellised, branching cultivars. Ratooning the crop through a further two cycles covers the cost of the trellising. Tubers from un-trellised field crops in Myanmar, and of staked, pruned garden crops in highland PNG have been estimated to produce crude protein yields of at least 300 kg ha-1 and 600 kg ha-1, respectively.