Plant in full sun and irrigated occasionally to infrequently. Not hardy to hard frosts but tolerates occasional short durations temperatures below freezing.

Lonchocarpus sericeus grows naturally from Chiapas in southern Mexico through Central American and tropical South America, the Caribbean, and West Tropical Africa, though it is not clear whether this old world distribution is not from early introduced plants. The genus name comes from the Greek words 'lonche', meaning "a lance" and 'karpos' meaning 'fruit' in reference to their fruit resembling an ornate lance tip and for this reason the trees in the genus are often called lancepods. The specific epithet is the Latin word for "silky", referring to the fine hairs on the flowers. Where it flowers (rarely in California gardens) it has slightly fuzzy pink pea flowers in dense axillary panicles which is followed by woody brown legume fruit that is constricted between the seeds.

This species has been grown in Florida as an ornamental tree but is rarely seen in California where it seems to grows well vegetatively in near frost free areas, but rarely (if ever) flowers. It is noted to be very similar to Millettia grandis. Our plants were taken as root suckers from the large attractive tree growing off the southwest corner of Web Hall (Geology Building) on the campus of the University of California Santa Barbara. 

The information displayed on this page about Lonchocarpus sericeus is based on the research we have conducted about it in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.