Cassia nummulariifolia 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
-
Type
Lectoholotypus, Lund 105, "in campis inter S. Anna et Paracatu, Aug. 1834, sparsim." C (hb. Warming 290)! = F Neg. 21821; isotypi C, F, NY! Pohl's spm. from Minas Gerais not seen. — Bentham, 1871, p. 563.
-
Description
Species Description - Densely leafy undershrubs with several simple or few-branched, procumbent or ascending, densely pallid-puberulent and viscid-setulose stems 3-8 dm, the pubescence of one or both types extending up to the lf-stalks, sometimes to base of lfts beneath, the foliage concolorous, the lfts always setulose-margined, the loosely racemose terminal inflorescence viscid-setulose throughout. Stipules erect or in age spreading, linear-attenuate, 2.5-8 mm, pubescent like the stem, persistent. Lvs variably oriented from stem, from procumbent ones unilaterally ascending, from ascendi ones widely spreading (not strictly ascending as in C. planaltoana), (5-)7-12 cm, short-petioled or sessile; pulvinus slightly dilated, scarcely wrinkled, ±0.8-1.4 mm; petiole of most lvs 0-3 mm, or of some lvs, rarely of all, better developed and reaching 16 mm, when very short terete, the lf-stalk at middle of first segment (0.5-)0.6-0.8(-0.9) mm diam; rachis 3.5-11 cm; lfts (except in. a few shori early lvs, mostly fallen by anthesis) 6-12 pairs of subequal size or slightly decrescent upward, mostl divaricate from the rachis and resupinately tilted, on pallid, spirally twisted, wrinkled pulvinule 0.4-0.8 mm, so as to bring the proximal margin edgewise to the meridian, in outline broadly ovate ovate-elliptic or suborbicular, (6-)8-23 x (3.5-)5-16(-20) mm, at base on proximal side cordate, on distal side cuneately decurrent to the rachis, the plane margin entire or minutely crenulate, always setulose, the blades firmly chartaceous, on both faces olivaceous or brownish and usually quite glabrous, rarely puberulent dorsally at base, the midrib and 4-7 pairs of major secondary veins abovi immersed, beneath the midrib alone sharply elevated, the tertiary venulation on both faces impercef tible. Inflorescence terminal, from decumbent stems incurved to erect, simply loosely racemose, 10-30(-40)-fld, the axis becoming 6-16 cm, the 2-3 fls simultaneously expanded raised to level of the pseudocorymbose buds; bracts lanceolate or subulate, 2-4 mm, persistent; pedicels at anthesis narrowly ascending, becoming thickened, incurved-ascending and (2-)2.5-4.5 cm in fruit, bracteolate 3-9 mm below calyx; bracteoles like bracts, slightly smaller, persistent; buds narrowly ovoid, bluntly apiculate, glutinous, thinly yellow-setulose; sepals submembranous, red, purplish, or brownish-green, elliptic or Iigulate-eIliptic, obtuse or subacute, 10-14 x 2-6 mm; petals yellow becoming orange in age, the four plane ones moderately unequal, broadly to narrowly cuneate-flabellate, the longest 17.5-20 x 13.5-16 mm, the fifth obliquely lanceolate, much shorter, coiled; ovary setulose; ovules 6-10.. Pod 4-6 x 0.7-0.8 cm, the reddish-brown valves glutinously lustrous, yellow-setulose, transversely veiny; seed (few seen) compressed-obovoid, ± 5 x 3.5 mm, the testa almost black, not highly lustrous, transversely crackled and almost imperceptibly lineolate-pitted. — Collections: 10.
Distribution and Ecology - Campo and cerrado 700-1075 (-1200) m, not uncommon on both slopes of the Rios Paranahyba-Paracatu divide in s.-e. Goias and immediately adjoining Minas Gerais, from near Araguari (near lat. 18° 30' S) n. along both slopes of Serra de Tiririca to latitude of Paracatu, thence n. interruptedly to Distrito Federal (Brasilia, Sobradinho) and (see discussion) perhaps to Chapada dos Veadeiros in lat. 14° S. — Fl. VIII-IV.
-
Discussion
This belongs to a complex group of closely related species characterized by resupinately tilted leaflets apparently veinless on the upper face; among them it is distinguished by the combination of densely puberulent and setulose decumbent or ascending stems and relatively few, in adult leaves commonly 6-10, less often 12 pairs of leaflets all tilted at the same angle. The usually taller, more erect C. filicifolia has similarly pubescent stems but ordinarily much more numerous leaflets, in some leaves at least 20 pairs, the lowest one or two of them reflexed from the rachis; whereas C. polita, which has almost the same leaves as C. nummulariifolia, has erect, smooth or almost smooth, glutinously castaneous stems, and C. decumbens, with smooth but diffuse stems, has fewer, mostly 2-5 pairs of leaflets.
In much of the extant material of C. nummulariifolia the leaves are sessile or almost so, the first pair of leaflets being inserted close to or close above the pulvinule; but even in part of Lund's type-collection there are some subsessile and some petiolate leaves.
Six collections (Irwin & al. 9316, 9401, 32745, 32860, 32978, Hatschbach 36746, all NY) from a small segment of Chapada dos Veadeiros between 12 and 25 kilometers north and northwest of Alto Paraiso at 1200—1250 m, unfortunately all but the last either sterile (in March) or bearing only vestiges of old, dried fruits (in October) are provisionally referred to C. nummulariifolia, although not identical in all respects with the known populations further south. Collectively these vary considerably in stature and number of leaflets, including both diffuse and erectly fruticose plants 5-17 dm tall, with leaves composed of up to 9, 13, 14, even 16 pairs of leaflets, these exactly of C. nummulariifolia except that they are sometimes finely pilosulous on the upper face. The aberrant characteristics of these plants have been withheld from the description of the species until more can be learned about their inflorescences, in Hatschbach’s specimen, collected in late May, a terminal leafless panicle of racemes.
Bentham transcribed Lund's locality data in the form "ad Santa Anna prov. S. Paulo", incorrectly because the specimens at C are dated to August 1834, when Lund in company with Riedel and Luschnath was traveling northward through western Minas Gerais between Santa Anna on the Rio das Velhas and Paracatu. Lund's specimens very closely match a series collected in the same month by Riedel, so closely indeed that one is led to assume that the two collections are part of one population, collected at the same time and place. Riedel's field-note preserved at LE places his locality, and therefore probably Lund's, "inter Rio das Valhas et Paranahyba", that is on a left affluent of the Paranahyba river somewhere east of Araguari.
-
Distribution
Distrito Federal Brazil South America| Goiás Brazil South America| Minas Gerais Brazil South America| Brazil South America|