Cassia monticola Mart. ex Benth.

  • Authors

    Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby

  • Authority

    Irwin, Howard S. & Barneby, Rupert C. 1978. Monographic studies in Cassia (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae). III. Sections Absus and Grimaldia. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 30: 1-300.

  • Family

    Caesalpiniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Cassia monticola Mart. ex Benth.

  • Type

    Holotypus, M, seen only in F Neg. 6246!, dated VI. 1818 and with more precise locality "Serra do Itambe do Va. do Principe'' [i.e. Pico do Itambe and not Itambe do Mato Dentro] . — C. monticola sensu Bentham, 1871, p. 560.

  • Description

    Species Description - Awkwardly few-branched erect shrubs to ±1 m with slender naked trunks and densely leafy annotinous branchlets, these with the margins and sometimes both faces of the ample sessile 2-foliolate lvs villosulous with fine erect whitish hairs up to ±0.5 mm mixed with viscid pallid or reddish setae up to 1-1.5 mm, the foliage subchartaceous sticky concolorous dull or moderately lustrous, the terminal, scarcely exserted, very shortly racemose inflorescence similarly villosulous and glandular-setulose. Stipules erect or stiffly ascending, narrowly subulate or setiform 1-5 mm, becoming dry and fragile but persistent. Lvs ascending, crowded and below loosely, upward densely imbricated along the branchlets, {12-) 15-36 mm sessile, t(ne pulvinus almost 0, the whole petiolar axis condensed into a nodule <1 mm terminated by a minute appendage standing erect between the lfts; lfts 2 ascending, turned half face to face on obscure pulvinule scarcely 0.5 mm, in outline obliquely ovate or obovate 12-37 x 8-22 mm, at apex rounded or broadly obtusely deltate and abruptly acuminulate or caudate-apiculate, at base broadly rounded or broadly cuneate on distal and obtusely auriculate-amplexicaul on proximal side, the plane margin entire but sometimes crenulate, the blade from base 3-5-nerved by the straight subcentric midrib with, on the broad side 2-3, on the narrow side 0-2 short incurved-ascending primary nerves, the stout midrib giving rise to 3-6 pairs of major and often a few intercalary secondary ones, these all, with the tertiary reticulate venules, prominulous on both faces but more sharply so beneath. Racemes solitary terminal to branchlets, densely ±5-15-fld, the several simultaneously expanded fls forming a subcapitate cluster, the axis little elongating, in fruit not >4 cm; bracts lance-subulate or subsetiform 3-5 mm, persistent; pedicels ascending, at anthesis ±7-10 (-?) mm, in fruit thickened and up to 15-21 mm, bracteolate 3-7 mm below calyx; bracteoles resembling bracts, slightly smaller, persistent; buds ovoid-acuminate, villosulous and either sparsely or densely setulose; sepals yellowish or perhaps sometimes reddish when fresh, elliptic-ovate acute 9-14(-15) mm; petals (scarcely known) yellow, the longer (adaxial) ones obovate-cuneate up to 13-17.5 mm; ovary densely setulose; ovules 5-8. Pod narrowly oblong ±27-40 x 8 mm, the reddish valves finely villosulous and hispid- setose; seeds unknown. — Collections: 3.

    Distribution and Ecology - On or around crystalline outcrops in montane campo near 1100-1300 m, apparently rare and local along and near the crest of centr. Sa. do Espinhaço (n.-e. of Diamantina; Sa. do Frio; Pico do Itambe) in lat. 18° 10'-18° 30 S, in centr. Minas Gerais. — Fl. VI-XII (-I). "Habitat locis altis petrosis fruticetis consitis in Serra de Itambe prov. Minas Geraes: Martius.''

  • Discussion

    A distinguished species, resembling C. catapodia in the single pair of sessile leaflets which clasp the stem by their proximally cordate base, but different in the subcymosely racemose inflorescence scarcely emergent from the foliage and the ascending, not refracted pedicels. The sympatric C. echinocarpa and C. kirkbridei, equally uncommon cassias here referred to ser. Glutinosae, are perhaps not distantly related, for both resemble C. monticola in texture and venation of the one pair of leaflets and in the subcapitate racemes of flower; but differ in the normally developed petiole and the obliquely cuneate rather than cordate basal angle of the leaflet-blades. The similarly rare and at least partly sympatric C. (Ochnaceae) vauthieri, comparable in the sessile leaves and short racemes, has four, not two leaflets sessile on the pulvinus, these at once subglabrous, glaucous, and not at all viscid, furthermore combined with a glabrous raceme of smaller flowers.

  • Distribution

    Minas Gerais Brazil South America| Brazil South America|