Cassia javanica var. indochinensis

  • Title

    Cassia javanica var. indochinensis

  • Authors

    Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Cassia javanica var. indochinensis Gagnep.

  • Description

    13b. Cassia javanica Linnaeus var. indochinensis Gagnepain, Fl. Gen. Indochine 2(2): 158, exclus. syn. dub. C. bakeriana. 1913.—Gagnepain cited 13 collections from Annam, Laos, Cambodia, Siam and Cochinchina, from among which a lectotypus should be selected, presumably at P.— Equated by Brenan, l.c., infra, with C. agnes and represented at NY by Pierre 417 from Cambodia, a presumed paratypus.

    Cassia nodosa Buchanan-Hamilton ex Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. ed. Carey 2: 336. 1832.—"A native of Chittagong. At the Botanic garden at Calcutta."—Authentic specimens from Hort. Bot. Calcut. were distributed as Wallich, Herb. Ind. 5331, K, NY (hb. Torr. ex hb. Benth.)! and Roxburgh’s illustration was published by Wallich, Ic. pl. Ind. or. 2: t. 410. 1840-43.—Cathartocarpus nodosus (Roxburgh) Steudel, Nom. ed. 2, 1: 311. 1840 (by error attributed to G. Don). Cassia javanica subsp, nodosa K. & S. Larsen, Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc. 25(3—4): 205. 1974.

    Cassia javanica var. agnes De Wit, Webbia 11: 220, fig. 1. 1955.—"Type specimen—A. Cuadra 3049 . . ."—Holotypus, L (not seen); isotypus, K!—C. agnes (De Wit) Brenan, Kew Bull. 1958(1): 180. 1958.

    We refer to var. indochinensis, which differs consistently from var. javanica only in the smaller stipules and shorter sepals and not in leaflet-shape or in size or color of the petals, almost all C. javanica cultivated in the Americas. The garden stock, occasionally subspontaneous in the vicinity of botanical gardens or about dwellings, is probably derived from more than one introduction, and has very likely been selected for size of flowers which tend to be larger than the average in Indochina. The variety is grown commonly in the West Indies from Cuba to Barbados (from where Brenan cited C. agnes) and we have seen specimens from Belize, Guatemala and Honduras in Central America, from Venezuela (urban), from Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and from several Brazilian cities. It is well established in gardens of subtropical Florida, where known as the Pink Shower (Isely, 1975, map 71) and is a favorite garden and street tree in Hawaii (Degener, New 111. Fl. Hawaiian Is., sine pag., 30.VI. 1932), where the delicately fragrant flowers are woven into leis and the shiny seeds threaded into necklaces.