Cassia moschata Benth.

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

Cassia moschata Benth.

Type

Holotypus, labelled ‘n. 1479, Rio Magdalena prope Mompox,’ P-HBK (lvs only), char, ampliat. Han- bury, Trans. Linn. Soc. 24: 162, t. 26. 1864.—Cathartocarpus mos- chatus (Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth) G. Don, Gen. Hist. Diehl. Pl. 2: 453. 1832.

Description

Species Description - Semideciduous, amply leafy trees with rounded crown and trunk when adult 1.5-9 dm diam, commonly seen 7-20 m tall but potentially flowering when smaller and attaining 28 m, the older branchlets livid lenticellate, the hornotinous ones and their distichous lvs pilosulous with spreading or incurved hairs up to 0.2-0.4 mm, the flush foliage yellowish- or whitish-tomentulose, the mature foliage bicolored, the lfts above lustrous brownish-olivaceous and either thinly pilosulous marginally or overall or glabrate, beneath paler dull and more densely pilosulous, the elongate racemes produced from axils of lvs newly fallen or soon to fall, pliantly pendulous from annotinous branchlets and subcontemporaneous with new lvs. Stipules thinly herbaceous, semisagittately 2-lobed, the longer lobe erect lanceolate or subulate 1.5-4.5 mm, the shorter one descending triangular-subulate 0.5-1.5 mm, the whole blade caducous from newly expanded lf. Adult lvs, excluding the often shorter and simpler first lf of each branchlet (not further mentioned), 11-26 cm; petiole including firm, moderately dilated pulvinus 9-22 mm, shallowly sulcate ventrally; rachis 9-22 cm, its ventral groove continuous past the pulvinules, the longer interfoliolar segments on either side (9-) 10- 16(- 18) mm; pulvinules dorsoventrally compressed 1-1.8(-2.4) mm; lfts either opposite or alternate along rachis (sometimes both on different lvs of one branchlet), decrescent proximally and thence either subequilong or again decrescent distally, those of larger lvs 10- 16(- 17, exceptionally -20) pairs, in outline oblong, lance-oblong, rarely ovate-oblong, obtuse, emarginate or broadly deltately subacute, the largest (26-)28-53 x (8-)9-17(-20) mm, (2.7-)2.8-4.1 times as long as wide, at inequilateral (distally broader) base broadly rounded or sub- cordate, the margin revolute, the oblique but straight midrib shallowly depressed above, cariniform beneath, the (12-) 14-19 pairs of widely ascending camptodrome secondary veins with connecting tertiary and reticular venulation all becoming finely sharply prominulous on both faces. Racemes loosely 25-70-fld, the axis elongating much before anthesis and becoming (6-)9-32 cm, the several simultaneously expanded fls far surpassed by unopened buds, or all fls subcontemporaneous, the pedicels refracted and so twisted as to restore the vexillum to vertical, though the fl in reality resupinate relative to its parent axis; bracts slenderly lance-subulate up to 3 mm, very early caducous with the similar bracteoles, all thrown off before the pedicel begins to elongate, absent at anthesis; pedicels at anthesis (5-)6-12(-14) mm measured up to base of the slenderly vase-shaped hypanthium, this 2-3.5 mm; fl-buds globose when very young, puberulent or subglabrate; sepals ovate-suborbicular obtuse, little graduated, the outer firm, bronze-red, dark wine-red or livid, the inner a trifle thinner-textured, often submembranous- and pallid-margined, the longest (5.5-)6-8(-8.5) mm; petals golden or bronze-yellow commonly red-veined, sometimes red-suffused, all convex and connivent to form a subglobose perianth, the vexillum differentiated by its longer claw (3-4.5 mm), forwardly inclined over the backwardly arched long stamens, its blade a little thickened along midrib but not appendaged, the blades of all petals elliptic-obovate, the longest petal (10-)11-15.5 mm; androecium glabrous, the sigmoid filaments of 3 abaxial stamens (15-) 17-26 mm, those of 4 median stamens either straight erect or obscurely sigmoid, slightly decrescent toward the vexillum, 4-8 mm, those of 3 adaxial ones thickened (the central one more so) 2-3.5 mm and distally recurved, the anthers of 3 long stamens firm brownish lustrous, in dorsoventral view broadly ovate apiculate (2.6-)2.8-3.5 x 2.1-2.5 mm, those of 4 median ones erect, slenderly ovate-elliptic 2.2-3.3 x 1-1.2 mm, the anthers of 3 adaxial ones sterile not over 1 mm, of the one opposed to vexillum often lacking; ovary stipitate, the glabrous or rarely pilosulous stipe 3-5.5(-6) mm, the incurved body either glabrous or thinly pilosulous along the sutures, at anthesis glabrous laterally but following fertilization becoming densely velvety-puberulent, the very short style abruptly narrowed into an introrsely ascending stigmatic cavity 0.1-0.15 mm diam; ovules 76-109. Pod pendulous, when fully fertile and undamaged by insects smoothly rodshaped terete 35-50 x (1.2-) 1.3-1.7(-1.9) cm, straight or almost so, the slender sutures immersed, the fuscous or livid-brown valves minutely puberulent overall, consisting of a pithy-fibrous, transversely fissured exocarp ±0.1 mm thick and woody endocarp 0.25-0.6 mm thick, the cavity divided by complete woody septa nearly as thick as the valve-wall, the fertile locules 3.5-4.5 mm long, as wide as the cavity; seeds (poorly known, much predated by bruchids) slowly maturing, laid broadside to the cavity in thin malodorous pulp, ±7-8 x 5-6 mm, the cas- taneous testa smooth, highly lustrous.—Collections: 72.—Fig. 1 (androecium).

Distribution and Ecology - Open semideciduous woodlands, savanna thickets, savanna-forest ecotone, and along streams in wet forest, 1-300 m, common and locally abundant, wild, cultivated and preserved for shade and beauty in pastures and along fences over much of the Orinoco basin and n.-e. Colombia (Boyaca, Meta, Vichada) and Venezuela (Amazonas and Apure to Delta Amacuro), n. in Venezuela to interior valleys of Cordillera Costanera and to the Maracaibo Basin in Zulia, feebly n.-e. in Colombia to lower Magdalena valley and thence to centr. Panama, skirting the flanks of Guayana Highland to the w. and reappearing abundantly on savannas of upper Rio Branco in Terr, do Roraima, Brazil and adjacent Guyana; apparently native but disjunct in e. Guatemala, adjoining Belize and the Gulf lowlands of s.-e. Veracruz and Tabasco, thence just reaching the Pacific slope near Tehuantepec in Oaxaca; collected once (perhaps cultivated) in Guayas, Ecuador, long cultivated and locally naturalized on Cuba, and a prized ornamental tree of Old and New World tropical botanic gardens.—Fl. I-IV, sometimes earlier in Brazil and s. Venezuela, usually when annotinous foliage is falling or mostly fallen and new leaves begin to unfold.

Common Names

Canafistola sabanera

Distribution

Boyacá Colombia South America| Meta Colombia South America| Amazonas Venezuela South America| Apure Venezuela South America| Delta Amacuro Venezuela South America| Zulia Venezuela South America| Guyana South America| Roraima Brazil South America| Guatemala Central America| Belize Central America| Veracruz Mexico North America| Tabasco Mexico North America| Oaxaca Mexico North America| Cuba South America|