Senna bacillaris var. bacillaris

  • Title

    Senna bacillaris var. bacillaris

  • Authors

    Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Senna bacillaris (L.f.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby var. bacillaris

  • Description

    8a. Senna bacillaris (Linnaeus f.) Irwin & Barneby var. bacillaris. Cassia bacillaris Linnaeus f., 1781, l.c., sens. str.—"Habitat in Surinamo. C. G. Dalberg."—Holotypus, LINN 528.2 & 3!—Cathartocarpus bacillus Persoon, Syn. Pl. 1: 459. 1805, nom. illegit. Bactyrilobium bacillare (Linnaeus fil.) Hornemann, Hort. Havn. 1: 392. 1813. Chamaefistula bacillaris (Linnaeus fil.) G. Don, Gen. Hist. Diehl. Pl. 2: 451. 1832.

    Mimosa nodosa Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 516 ("uodosa"). 1753—"Habitat in Zeylona." Lectoholotypus, Phaseolus arboreus tetraphyllus Zeylanicus Plukenet, Phytographia 3 (=Opera omnia bot. 2): t. 211, fig. 5, 1692, drawn from a plant cultivated at Hampton Court, England, further described by Plukenet, Almagest. Bot. (=Opera omnia bot. 4): 294. 1696.—Grown also at Hartekamp by Clifford, but no specimen survives in LINN; a leaf at BM accompanied by the phrase-name from Hort. Cliff, was received from Jacquin, probably after 1753.—Equated by Bentham with C. bacillaris (1871, p. 521).—Non Cassia nodosa Buch.-Hamilt., 1832. Cassia puberula Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. Gen. & Sp. 6(qu): 341. 1824.—"Crescit cum praecedente." i.e. ". . . ad ostia fluvii Sinu, prope Carthagenam (Regno Novo-Granatensi [=Sincelejo, Edo. Cordoba, Colombia])."—Holotypus, labelled "n. 1389, Rio Sinu prope Carthagenam" P (HBK)! isotypus, labelled by Bonpland '5801. Cassia vimineal Rio Sinu, Carthagene.,' P. (hb. Bonpland.)!—Chamaefistula puberula (Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth) G. Don, Gen. Hist. Diehl. Pl. 2: 451. 1832. Cassia carthaginensis Willdenow ex Steudel, Nom. Bot. Ed. 2, 1: 304, 307. 1841, pro syn. C. puberulae (=Willd. Herb. 7932). Cassia inaequilatera Balbis ex DeCandolle, Prod. 2: 490. 1825.—". . . ad Sanctam-Martham (Bertero)."—Holotypus, labelled by DeCandolle, lS. Martha ex H[erb.] Bert[eroano] m[isit] Balbis 1822,’ G-DC! clastotypus (fragm) + print of holotypus, NY (misit Hochreutiner, 1924)! isotypi †B = F Neg. 1694 + fragm, F, FI.’—Chamaefistula inaequilatera (DeCandolle) G. Don, Gen. Hist. Diehl. Pl. 2: 451. 1832.

    Cassia fockeana Miquel, Linnaea 18: 579. 1844.—"Crescit spontanea in hortis ad Paramaribo, m. Oct. fl."—Holotypus presumably at U, not seen; isotypus, ticketed 'Surinam, Miquel 1850,’ K (hb. Benth.)!—Equated by Bentham, 1871, p. 521, with C.fruticosa sensu Benth. (=C. bacillaris vera).

    Cassia insignis N. E. Brown, Trans. Linn. Soc. II, Bot. 6: 24. 1901.— On the upper slopes of Mount Roraima, [British Guiana], McConnell & Quelch, 23."—Holotypus, collected by J. J. Quelch & F. McConnell in autumn 1894 (fl), K! = NY Neg. 1549.

    Cassia bacillaris sensu Bentham, 1870, p. 98, t. 31, magna pro parte, exclus. pl. brasil. et syn. C. puberula; 1871, t. 62, max. pro parte.

    Chamaefistula fruticosa sensu Britton & Rose, 1923. p. 235, exclus. typ.

    Vesture of lvs and inflorescence appressed or rarely incumbent white or grayish; lfts intricately reticulate on both faces, the smaller defined areoles 1 mm diam; functional stamens 7, the 3 abaxial long-beaked ones of ± equal size; ovules 122-204.—Collections: 243.

    Margins of woods, thickets, often along streams, becoming weedy in disturbed forest, along hedges, and in abandoned fields or orchards, mostly below 300 m but ascending in Venezuela to 1000-1400 m on the Gran Sabana (Bolivar) and Cordillera Costanera (Distrito Federal and Miranda) and on upper Rio Branco in Brazil to 1525 m, widely dispersed around the s. circumference of the Caribbean and in n.-e. South America, from s. Nicaragua (Chontales) through Costa Rica (rare), Panama (common, in almost all provinces), n. Colombia (n. from lat. 6°N) and n. Venezuela (uncommon, in Cordillera Costanera, Isla Margarita and Paria Peninsula) to Trinidad, Tobago and Windward Islands (St. Vincent, Martinique), thence s. in Venezuela to the Gran Sabana (Bolivar), upper Rio Branco in Brazil (n. Terr, do Roraima), interior upland and coastal lowland Guyana, and lowland n. Surinam. Reported from Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands (St. Thomas). Long cultivated in tropical gardens of Old and New Worlds (Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Florida, Hawaii, Java, East Africa (Brenan, 1967, p. 70, sub. C. fruticosa), and formerly in European conservatories.—Fl. in Central and n. South America most abundantly VIII-II, but also, both wild and cultivated, at intervals through the year.

    Except that we emphatically exclude Cassia fruticosa, with consequences to the dispersal of the species, our concept of S. bacillaris and its synonymy differ but little from that of Bentham (1871). We reinterpret C. inaequilatera Balb. as a synonym of S. bacillaris, now known to be common in the foothills of Sa. Nevada de Santa Marta, and not equivalent to S. papillosa, the species to which Bentham tentatively applied the name. Cassia insignis represents a form of S. bacillaris in which the stipules are dilated into falcately oblanceolate blades that tend to persist long into the adult life of the associated leaf. In the protologue N. E. Brown compared C. insignis with C. latifolia, which has stipules of the same type, rather than with C. bacillaris, of which it has all other attributes. We now have collections of S. bacillaris from all sides of the Roraima Plateau, some closely resembling the typus of C. insignis, but others with narrower or early deciduous stipules, some with strigulose annotinous stems and foliage, and some with finely pilosulous stems; but these variations appear independent of one another.