Cassia marilandica L.

  • Authority

    Isley, Duane. 1975. Leguminosae of the United States: II. Subfamily Caesalpinioideae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 25 (2): 1-228.

  • Family

    Caesalpiniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Cassia marilandica L.

  • Description

    Species Description - Robust perennial, mostly unbranched glabrate herb with solitary or clustered, often purple speckled stems to 1.5 m. Leafstalk 1-2 dm with a proximal, petiolar, ovoid-pointed, or dome-shaped gland; leaflets 6-8 pairs, short petioluled, elliptic to elliptic-oblong, acute, 3-5 cm, 2.3-3 r. Stipules narrowly subulate, mostly deciduous. Flowers 6-9 in axillary racemes, and(or) terminally congested. Pedicels initially recurved (flowers nodding in bud), becoming divergent, 1-1.5 cm. Sepals unequal, the longer 7-8 mm, finely ciliate; corolla yellow, 1.5-2 cm diam, slightly irregular; functional stamens 7, the lower 3 exserted on slender filaments; pistil antrorse-villous to appressed pubescent. Legume slowly dehiscent, oblong, flat, nearly straight or usually falcate and recurving, 6-10 cm long, .8-1 cm wide; valves greenish, thinly strigose when immature, becoming black, glabrous, thinly coriaceous, transversely impressed into narrow segments ca 1/2 as broad as long. Seeds many.

  • Discussion

    C. medsgari Shafer (1904) Ditremexa medsgeri (Shafer) Britt. & Rose (1930) D. nashii Britt. 8c Rose (1930) CN n — 14 (Irwin and Turner, 1960). This and the similar Cassia hebecarpa Fern, are the only two perennial Cassia found in temperate North America. Cassia marilandica, the more southerly of the two is perhaps linked to the subtropical C. ligustrina of Florida. Collections from Lake co., Florida, bearing the spheroid petiolar glands of C. marilandica but the leaflet shape of C. ligustrina seem intermediate between these species sensu characters.' They represent Ditremexa nashii Britt. Sc Rose. Involvement of C. ligustrina in a putative parentage is unlikely because that species is primarily coastal.

  • Distribution

    E and c temperate to warm U.S.: s N.Y., e Nebraska, e Texas, Florida. Primarily river and creek bottoms and banks, less frequendy in dry open woodlands; sometimes of ruderal or disturbed areas as roadside ditches or moist old fields in alluvial soil; mostly infrequent; occasional as cult, ornamental (commercially available). July-Aug.(-Sept.).

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