Cassia lomatopoda

Small, amply leafy, often herblike undershrubs 2-5 dm, with 1-several simple or weakly branched stems erect or ascending from an oblique woody rootstock, the stems densely (and the lf-stalks and inflorescence sometimes sparsely) hispid with erect tapering setae to 2-5 mm, the lfts glabrous except for the sometimes setulose (exceptionally also minutely villosulous) margins, the terminal, densely racemose inflorescence and pod glutinous but smooth and glabrous, the foliage bicolored, lustrous at least above, paler beneath.

Stipules erect, firmly herbaceous, linear-lanceolate or setiform, (2-)3-7 mm, persistent.

Lvs ascending at ±45°, shortly petioled, 4-11 cm, becoming larger and more complex upward; pulvinus moderately dilated, usually discolored, 1-2(-2.5) mm, wrinkled when dry; petiole (3-)7-20 mm, like the rachis broadly wing-margined ventrally, the wings herbaceous with corneous margin; rachis (of some lower leaves 0) 1-3.7 cm; lfts 1-3 pairs, ascending from rachis, face upward, on very short, transversely dilated, wrinkled pulvinules less than 1 mm, in ventral view appearing sessile, in outline subsymmetrically obovate to broadly oblanceolate, obtuse to short-acuminate, 3-6.5 x 1.2-3 cm, at base cordate on the proximal and cuneate or rounded on distal side, the entire or obscurely crenulate margin revolute or becoming so, the blades chartaceous, above olivaceous often drying brown, lustrous, beneath paler, either lustrous or dull, the stout tapering subcentric midrib immersed above, elevated beneath, the 5-10 pairs of ascending secondary veins and their connecting tertiary venules bluntly prominulous on both sides but more sharply so dorsally, forming a loose open mesh of irregular areoles mostly >1 mm diam.

Inflorescence a simple, densely many-fld terminal raceme together with peduncle 6-16(-21) cm, either rising to level of lvs or well exserted, the several simultaneously expanded fls subconti- guous at anthesis and standing well below the densely racemose buds; bracts firm with membranous margins, narrowly lanceolate to lance-caudate, 3-7.5 mm, persistent or tardily deciduous in fruit; pedicels ascending, (3.5-)6-15 mm, bracteolate 0.5-3 mm below calyx; bracteoles resembling bracts but shorter, 1.5-3.5 mm, persistent; buds ovoid, apiculate, glabrous; sepals firm, reddish when fresh, the inner with membranous margins, elliptic or elliptic-obovate, the outer acute, (7-)8-11 x 2.5-4.5 mm, petals yellow, at full anthesis ascending at narrow angles to form a campanulate corolla, four obovate- or flabellate-cuneate, strongly unequal, the longest up to (10.5-) 12-15 x 6-7.5 mm, the fifth obliquely oblanceolate, coiled; ovary glabrous; ovules 6-8.

Pod linear-oblong, slightly curved downward, 4-5.2 x 0.7-1 cm, the valves green or reddish- tinged, glabrous, glutinously lustrous, finally nigrescent, coarsely transerve-venulose; seeds narrowly obovoid, compressed, 5-5.5 x 2.7-3 mm, the testa atrocastaneous, moderately lustrous, lineolate. — Collections: 10.