Senna pistaciifolia var. glabra (Benth.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby

  • Authors

    Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby

  • Authority

    Irwin, Howard S. & Barneby, Rupert C. 1982. The American Cassiinae. A synoptical revision of Leguminosae tribe Cassieae subtrib Cassiinae in the New World. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 35, part 2: 455-918.

  • Family

    Caesalpiniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Senna pistaciifolia var. glabra (Benth.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby

  • Type

    Holotypus, so labelled, P-HBK! former isotypus, †B, survives as F Neg. 1731!

  • Synonyms

    Cassia pistaciifolia var. glabra Benth., Cassia fraxinifolia Kunth, Cassia pearcei Benth.

  • Description

    Variety Description - Foliage usually quite glabrous, exceptionally the lfts strigulose beneath; otherwise as in key. [Key: "Bracts glabrous, prominently 5-several-nerved dorsally; lfts variable in number, but the midrib prominulous ventrally and the margin plane; s. Ecuador to Bolivia and Galapagos Is. Lfts 6-11 pairs, at least in most larger lvs; pod plane, the valves indistinctly elevated over the seeds as faint corrugations; n. Peru (Lambayeque, Cajamarca and Amazonas) to Bolivia, on the Amazon slope except marginally at the n.-w. limit."] —Collections: 12.

    Distribution and Ecology - Evergreen and deciduous brush-woodland (?450-)900-2800 m, scattered along the e. slope of the Peruvian Andes, on headwaters of Maranon and Ucayali rivers, from Cajamarca and immediately adjoining Lambayeque to Cuzco and (presumably adjoining n.-w.) Bolivia, at its extreme n.-w. limit in Lambayeque crossing the crest to the edge of the Pacific slope.—Fl. IX-IV(-VI).

  • Discussion

    The var. glabra differs from var. pistaciifolia most visibly in the more numerous, usually quite glabrous leaflets. These are also the supposed differential characters of C. pearcei which we cannot distinguish from south Peruvian var. glabra. We have not found on any map the type-locality of C. pearcei, written by Bentham (perhaps by typographic error) "La Bama," but appearing on the label as "La Banca." The place was said by Bentham to be in Bolivia, but this does not appear on the original label; it may have been in Peru. The name C. cuspidata, published by Willdenow in 1809, which has obviously several years’ priority over C. fraxinifolia or C. pistaciifolia, was equated with the former by Vogel (1837, p. 37) and taken up by Macbride in Flora of Peru for the plant here called S. pistaciifolia var. glabra. The holotypus consists of a single leaf from a plant grown in the Botanic Garden at Berlin, preserved as Herb. Willdenov. 7979 (B). We are unable to identify this with certainty and are obliged to follow Bentham in treating C. cuspidata as a doubtful synonym.

  • Distribution

    Cajamarca Peru South America| Lambayeque Peru South America| Cusco Peru South America| Bolivia South America|