Senna bicapsularis
Content
Description
Arborescent shrub up to 3 m high, spreading with pendant or sometimes climbing twigs, entirely glabrous except for the young branches which may be thinly pubescent.
Leaves with 3 pairs of leaflets; petiole furrowed, slender, 15-25 mm, rachis 10-28 mm, furrowed, glabrous, bearing a clavate to ovoid gland between the lowest pair of leaflets.
Stipules narrowly lanceolate-subulate, 1-3 mm long, caducous.
Sepals yellowish to reddish brown, glabrous, ovate, broadly rounded, 5-10 mm long.
Petals yellow, obovate, 11-15 mm long, very short-clawed.
Stamens 10: 3 lower ones with unequal filaments, 2-10 mm, anthers large, curved, 7 mm, opening with 2 apical pores and longitudinal rims; 4 shorter with 1 mm long filaments and anthers 4-5 mm long; 3 reduced stamens with minute anthers.
Ovary, stipe and style glabrous; stigma inconspicuous.
Seeds 50-60, olive-green, ovate, flattened, 5-7 mm.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical, Caribbean area and northern South America present, Old World tropics present
Origin neotropic, probably native in the Caribbean area and northern South America. It was early introduced to the Old World tropics. In the Malesian area it has been cultivated and is sometimes naturalized.Malesia
Taxonomy
This species has often been confused with Senna pendula (Willd.) Irwin & Barneby (syn. Cassia coluteoides Collad.). The most distinctive characters between the two are the short pedicels and the totally glabrous leaves of S. bicapsularis.
Two varieties are recognized by Irwin & Barneby (I.e.). All the Malesian material examined belongs to var. bicapsularis.
Uses
Cultivated as an ornamental (cf. K.Heyne, I.e.; Burkill, I.e., under 4Cassia laevigata' as cited above).
Citation
de Wit 1956 – In: Webbia: 235
K. Heyne 1950: Nutt. Pl. Indon., ed. 3: 744
Verdc. 1979 – In: Manual New Guinea Leg., Lae Bot. Bull.: 40
Rudd 1991 – In: Fl. Ceylon: 77.
Burkill 1935: Diet. Econ. Prod. Malay Penins.: 477.
Irwin & Barneby 1982 – In: Mem. N.Y. Bot. Gard.: 399.
Backer & Bakh.f 1964 – In: Fl. Java: 539
K. & S.S. Larsen 1984: p. 117. – In: Fl. Thailand: f. 29/1-3
K. & S.S. Larsen 1980: p. 99. – In: Fl. Camb., Laos & Vietnam: pl. 29/1-3