Weed controller
Calopo provides large amounts of leaf litter onto the soil, smothering most weeds (Chin Chen Peng et al., 1997). Calopo may also have some allelopathic effects on seeds and prevent weed development (Souza Filho et al., 2003). Calopo is one of the species that can help controlling the noxious weed alang-alang (Imperata cylindrica) (Friday et al., 1999).
Cover crop and soil fertilizer
Calopo is an N-fixing legume that has no specific requirement for rhizobium and nodulates readily. It provides soil N to neighbouring grasses when it is sown in mixed stands, and to the following crop when intercropped (with maize for instance). Its effects can last 14-16 years (Chin Chen Peng et al., 1997). It is a valuable green manure in rice fields where it is tolerant of stagnant water conditions (Kretschmer et al., 2001; IRRI, 1988). It is used as cover crop in plantations (banana, coffee, rubber, palms, black pepper) but should be prevented from overgrowing the trees by regular cutting (Parthasarathy, 2008; Chin Chen Peng et al., 1997).
Weed potential
Due to its agressive development and allelopathy towards the seeds of other species, Calopogonium mucunoides can become a localized weed in humid-tropical environments. It is considered a weed in tropical ecosystems in northern Australia (Northern Territory and Queensland), in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia and in many Pacific Islands (Samoa, Mariana Islands, Cook Islands, French Polynesia) (US Forest Service, 2011; Cook et al., 2005).