Senna hirsuta (L.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby var. hirsuta

  • 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 1: 1-454.

  • Family

    Caesalpiniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Senna hirsuta (L.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby var. hirsuta

  • Type

    Holotypus (Brenan, 1967, p. 80), a plant cultivated at Hartekamp and described by Linnaeus, Hort. Cliff. 159. 1737 = Herb. Cliffort., Cassia No. 4 (lvs only), BM!—Ditremexa hirsuta (Linnaeus) Britton & Rose ex Britton & Wilson, Sci. Surv. Porto Rico & Vir

  • Synonyms

    Cassia hirsuta L., Ditremexa hirsuta (L.) Britton & Rose ex Britton & P.Wilson, Cassia venenifera Rodschied, Cassia caracasana Jacq.

  • Description

    Variety Description - Except for the pod in all respects like var. hirta, technically indistinguishable at anthesis; ovules 60-96; pod 11-15 x (0.4-)0.45-0.65 cm, slightly or moderately curved outward, the valves densely permanently bristly-hirsutulous with ascending hairs.—Collections: 59. [Key: "Lfts pubescent on both faces and cili(ol)ate, the longer hairs 0.4-2.8 mm. Vesture of lfts hirsute, the hairs straight, spreading or ascending, highly lustrous, the longest 0.6-2.8 mm; equatorial S. America n.-w. and n. to tropical Mexico and W. Indies, s. infrequently and interruptedly in Brazil and Bolivia to ±17°S. Pod stouter, shorter and straight, 11-15 x (0.4-)0.45-0.65 cm; n. S. America from Colombia to the Guianas, s.-e. in Brazil to Maranhao and (disjunctly) s.-centr. Goias, n. to the Greater and Lesser Antilles; widespread as a weed in Old World Tropics."]

    Distribution and Ecology - Forest margins, thickets, shores, disturbed and regenerating scrub-woodlands, becoming a vigorously aggressive weed along roads, in pastures, orchards, and in rural and urban waste places, over most of its range confined to the lowlands but ascending to 1000-1900 m in Andean Colombia and Venezuela and to 900 m on the Brazilian Planalto, discontinuously widespread around the n. and n.-e. edges of South America, from Panama (Bocas del Toro and Darien) e. and s.-e. across Venezuela and the Guianas to the middle Tocantins and Parnaiba valleys in Maranhao, Brazil, n. through Trinidad and some Windward Is. (St. Vincent, Martinique, Guadeloupe) to Puerto Rico; Jamaica (probably only naturalized); introduced in cocoa plantations in Bahia, along highways in s.-e. Goias, in e. Bolivia, and to be expected elsewhere in the lowland Neotropics. Long naturalized in the wet tropics of the Old World (Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, New Caledonia, Queensland).—Fl. in the Neotropics nearly throughout the year.

  • Common Names

    Frijolillo de monte , aytera cimarrona, erva de bicho

  • Distribution

    Bocas del Toro Panamá Central America| Darién Panamá Central America| Maranhão Brazil South America| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines South America| Martinique South America| Guadeloupe South America| Puerto Rico South America| Jamaica South America| Bahia Brazil South America| Goiás Brazil South America| Bolivia South America| Venezuela South America| India Asia| Sri Lanka Malaysia Asia| New Caledonia Queensland Australia Oceania|