Senna multijuga var. lindleyana (Gardner) H.S.Irwin & Barneby

Family

Caesalpiniaceae

Scientific Name

Senna multijuga var. lindleyana (Gardner) H.S.Irwin & Barneby

Type

Typus supra subsp. lindleyana indicavimus,--C. multijuga var. lindleyana (Gardner) Bentham in Martius, Fl. Bras. 15(2): 123. 1870, quoas nom., exclus. pl. Pohl.; Bentham, 1871, p. 546.

Synonyms

Cassia lindleyana Gardner, Cassia multijuga var. lindleyana (Gardner) Benth., Cassia scabrella Hoffmanns., Cassia semifalcata Vell., Cassia selloi Don, Cassia magnifica Mart., Cassia trachypus Benth., Cassia chrysoclada Taub.

Description

Variety Description - Essentially like var. multijuga in aspect, and in detail except (as noted under subsp. lindleyana supra) for the setiform stipules, the pubescence equally variable except the axes of inflorescence never setulose. Lfts of larger lvs 16-36(-46) pairs, the larger ones (1.8-)2-4.6 X (3.5-)4.5-13(-14) mm, (2.8-)3-5 times as long as wide, the longest interfoliar segments of rachis (4-)5-13(-15) mm. Fls and pods of var. multijuga.--Collections: 93.

Distribution and Ecology - Forest clearings, margins of humid woodland, often along streams, inland in gallery forest, thriving in distributed and regenerating brush-woodland, sometimes preserved as a shade-tree in pastures and plantations, mostly 50-950 but on Sa. do Caparao ascending to 1800 and on Sa. da Caraca to 1400 m, locally plentiful along the Atlantic slope and crest of the coast ranges of s.-e. Brazil between s. Bahia and n.-e. Santa Catarina, sparingly n. (?native, in the range of S. multijuga var. verrucosa) on the coastal plain of Bahia to Ilheus and Itajuipe, inland in Sao Paulo to the headwaters of Rios Tiete and Paranapanema and in Minas Gerais to the s. Sa. do Espinhaco (Catasd Altas, Sabara etc.) and n. along the Velhas fork of Rio Sao Francisco to Varzea da Palma; cultivated in s. Brazilian cities and elsewhere in the Neotropics.--Fl. I-IV(-V), in California gardens X-XII.

Discussion

Cassia lindleyana was separated in the first instance from C. selloi because of the copious yellow vesture of the young branches and inflorescence and maintained by Bentham for the same reason as a variety of C. multijuga. The unnumbered variants of S. multijuga sens. lat. that differ in the color and density of pubescence are here considered taxonomically (though not necessarily horticulturally) insignificant and var lindleyana is now characterized by the coincidence of distant ample leaflets with setiform stipules. It is the south Brazilian analogue of var. multijuga and, except for stipules, essentially like it. In the part of its range that extends along the coastal ranges southwestward from the Organ Mountains var. lindleyana is sympatric with var. peregrinatrix, differing from this in the less crowded, always longer and nearly always much broader leaflets. In southern Minas Gerais, especially around Vicosa (where repeatedly collected), var. lindleyana is represented locally by a form with leaflets approaching var. peregrinatrix for narrowness but at the same time longer and more numerous. It appears strictly parallel to that form of var. multijuga with narrow leaflets that is locally dominant around Iquitos and the sources of Rio Jurua in upper Amazonia. We take this to be equivalent to C. selloi Vogel (1837, p. 38) which seems to be represented at K by a Sello collection labelled "C. selloi var. polyphylla Vog." (nom. nud.). The three synonyms listed above, all based on plants from the neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, were already referred by Bentham to C. multijuga. In our account of C. trachypus, q.v., a partial confusion with var. lindleyana on Bentham's part is reviewed.

Common Names

Farinha senca, alleluia, amarellinho

Distribution

Bahia Brazil South America| Santa Catarina Brazil South America| São Paulo Brazil South America| Minas Gerais Brazil South America| Rio de Janeiro Brazil South America| California United States of America North America| Fiji