Sericea Lespedeza use in Animal, Plant and Environment Health Issues.

Sericea lespedeza (SL) has been used mostly in soil conservation and to a lesser degree as a forage crop. Once established, SL is a low input crop. It contains condensed tannins which are associated with a number of beneficial effects. SL benefits the health of ruminants because it reduces gastrointestinal parasites and protein degradation, prevents bloating and improves nutrition. A new low-growing SL developed at Auburn University was planted as an inter-row live mulch in pumpkins to determine its effect on incidence of aphid-transmitted viruses and on fruit production of the vegetable crop. Pumpkin plants grown with SL as inter-row cover crop had less virus incidence and more marketable fruit number and weight. SL roots have a high ability to fix N. Because SL has condensed tannins, its tissue is slow to decompose, therefore N release is slow too. Thus, SL would provide the soil with more organic matter than residues from plants that decompose fast. SL improves soil quality and promotes water infiltration, consequently, favors reduction of surface water run-off that may carry pollutants. Therefore, SL helps to protect water quality. Reduction of protein degradation also has environmental effects. It results in lower plasma urea N what means lower urinary N excretion and less N going into the environment by ammonia volatilization. Condensed tannins have been associated with the reduction of methane, a greenhouse gas, produced by ruminants. Ruminants are estimated to be the source of up to 19% of the methane annually produced. Goats fed SL had a reduction of at least 30% in methane emission. Trichloroethylene (TCE) is an industrial solvent suspected of being carcinogen. Sericea lespedeza is a TCE-degrading plant that converts it to CO₂ probably because the rhizosphere of SL can develop abundant ecto- and endo-mycorrhizal hyphae that promotes bacterial activity.