Senna pendula var. ovalifolia H.S.Irwin & Barneby
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Authors
Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby
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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.
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Family
Caesalpiniaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Holotypus, BR! isotypus, K!— Adipera ovalifolia (Martens & Galeotti) Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23(4): 241. 1930.—Unjustly equated by Bentham 1871, p. 525, with Cassia bicapsularis var. pubescens (=our Senna pendula var. advena).—Non C. ovalifolia Mart,
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Synonyms
Cassia ovalifolia Mart. ex Colla, Cassia botteriana Benth., Peiranisia botteriana (Benth.) Britton & Rose, Adipera submontana Britton & Rose, Cassia submontana (Britton & Rose) Lundell
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Description
Variety Description - Precociously flowering, at first diffuse, when crowded leaning or vinelike, in age arborescent shrubs fertile at 1-6.5 m, the lfts glabrous or facially glabrous but ciliolate, or dorsally either barbellate in the further basal angle of midrib or thinly pilosulous overall; petiolar glands at first and rarely also at the second pair of lfts, these 3-5 (in most lvs of most plants exactly 4) pairs, the distal pair obovate or elliptic-obovate obtuse (apiculate) 18-40(-45) x (9-) 10-20 mm, the secondary veins on each side of midrib 5-8(-9), tertiary venulation obscure or weak and irregular; longest sepal 7.5-9.5(-10) mm; longest petal 11.5-14(-16) mm; blade of staminodes quadrate, short-oblong or trapeziform (broadest at undulately truncate apex) 2.1-2.6(-3.2) x 1.5-2.4 mm; 2 long abaxial filaments 710 mm, their anther slenderly lanceolate 6-7.8 x 0.9-1.2(-1.3) mm, the obscurely differentiated beak ±0.3-0.4 mm; ovary commonly pilosulous, rarely glabrate; style (2.7-)3.2-5 mm; ovules 66-108; body of pod subcylindric 10-15.5 x 1.1-1.5 cm, appearing broader when flattened in press.—Collections: 52. [Key: "Lfts obovate or oblanceolate, rarely elliptic-oblanceolate, broadest above (exceptionally near) the middle; range of the whole sp. Style at and after anthesis 1.5-5 mm and the 2 long abaxial filaments 6-11 mm. Plants of Mexico, West Indies, Central America and of South America n. and w. of the Orinoco-Amazon forests. Long anthers, including beak, if any, (5.5-)6-14 mm; widespread, but not on Puerto Rico. Beak of long anthers 0.3-1 mm, shorter than or at least not longer than diam of orifice, the whole commonly drum-shaped, sometimes scarcely differentiated from the body; blade of staminodes as long or longer than wide; Mexico, Cuba, n.-w. Venezuela."]
Distribution and Ecology - Thickets, hedges, waste places, forest openings or clearings, shores, sometimes coming out onto dunes or barrier beaches, near sea level up to 1320 m in Veracruz and up to 1300-1700 m in Venezuela, locally abundant on the e. slope and piedmont of Sa. Madre Oriental and adjoining Gulf coastal plain from near 24°N in Tamaulipas s. to s. Veracruz and Tabasco, n. (probably adventively) to the lower Rio Grande valley in extreme s. Texas and s. to the Pacific slope between w. Oaxaca and Istmo de Tehuantepec; reappearing disjunctly on the Pacific coastal plain between 23° and 27°N in Sinaloa and s. Sonora, and remotely so at 1300 m upwards in mountains of n.-w. Venezuela (Falcon and Lara); established but dubiously native in w. Cuba (Las Villas, La Habana, Pinar del Rio) and sparingly escaped from cultivation in s. peninsular Florida.-Fl. in e. Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela (VI-)VII-XII(-I), in w. Mexico III-V, VIII-XII, perhaps irregularly through the year as seasonal rains permit.
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Discussion
Since Bentham’s reduction of Cassia ovalifolia to C. bicapsularis this easily recognized, primarily Mexican variety of S. pendula has been lost sight of and in the last revision (Lasseigne, adnot. ined.) has still been submerged in a polymorphic var. pendula sens. lat. The syndrome of relatively small, brachystylous flower and slender, almost beakless long anthers readily distinguishes it from other North American forms of its species. The focus of abundance of var. ovalifolia is on the Gulf slope and coastal plain in Tamaulipas and Veracruz, but we interpret the disjunct occurrence on Pacific slope in Sinaloa as probably natural, following a well recognized pattern of dispersal. It is otherwise with the Cuban material, all of which is from the neighborhood of towns and very probably cultivated or naturalized. The montane northern Venezuelan populations, apparently truly native but remotely disjunct from the main range, cannot be distinguished morphologically; we suspect nevertheless that they represent an independently evolved variant of the pendula stock, very close to the lowland Venezuelan var. meticola, which see for comment.
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Common Names
Caca de gato, cachimbo
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Distribution
Veracruz Mexico North America| Tabasco Mexico North America| Texas United States of America North America| Oaxaca Mexico North America| Sinaloa Mexico North America| Sonora Mexico North America| Falcón Venezuela South America| Lara Venezuela South America| Las Villas Cuba West Indies| La Habana Cuba South America| Piñar del Río Cuba South America| Florida United States of America North America|