Senna macranthera var. micans

  • Title

    Senna macranthera var. micans

  • Authors

    Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Senna macranthera var. micans (Nees) H.S.Irwin & Barneby

  • Description

    42c. Senna macranthera (Colladon) var. micans (Nees) Irwin & Barneby, stat. nov. Cassia micans Nees, Flora (Regensb.) 4: 303. 1821.—No locality given, collected in Brazil by Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied.—Holotypus not known to survive; neoholotypus, Maximilian 43, dated III. 1817, collected therefore in s.-e. Bahia, probably in the Contas valley, BR! isotypi listed under the next following.

    Cassia speciosa Schrader, Gotting. Gelehrt. Anz. 1: 718. 1821.—"[. . . der Prinz Maximilian von Neuwied ... in Brasilien gesammelten Gewachse] no. 43."—Holotypus, Maximilian 43, dated III. 1817, GOETT! isotypi, BR (v. supra), G-DC (misit Schrader)!—Chamaefistula speciosa (Schrader) G. Don, Gen. Hist. Diehl. Pl. 2: 451. 1832.

    Cassia speciosa sensu Vogel, 1837, p. 39; sensu Bentham 1870, p. 103 & 1871, p. 524, amb. minore pro parte.Like var. nervosa in vesture and calyx, the longest sepal 5-9 x 2-4 mm, but shrubby or weakly arborescent, when adult 1.5-6 m, and the pod only (?4-)5-11 cm; ovules 112-140.—Collections: 17.

    Caatinga and carrasco, 600-1500 m, apparently uncommon, s. Ceara (Chapada de Araripe) s. along crest and e. slope of Chapada Diamantina to Rio das Contas in Bahia (lat. 7-14°S), in valley of Rio Paraguacu extending out into the lowlands to Sape Acu.—Fl. I—III, VI-VIII.

    Very close to var. nervosa, but seldom more than shrubby when fully grown and small-leaved. The pod, unknown to Bentham, is of the short type hitherto thought proper to Cassia pudibunda, our var. pudibunda, from which it differs in the small, golden-hairy calyx.

    To contemporary botanists it was well known from the first that Cassia micans and C. speciosa were described from parts of one collection, thought by Bentham to have originated in Espirito Santo, but, if the date given on duplicate labels at Brussels and Gottingen is correct, certainly from southeastern Bahia. Maximilian described his plant as 5-6 foot tall, and it is matched at all points by modern collections from the Contas valley which have the relatively low stature, small leaves and short pod here considered diagnostic of the variety. Except for the type of C. speciosa all collections cited by Bentham under this name in Flora Brasiliensis represent the much commoner, arborescent, larger-leaved var. nervosa, which has consequently usurped the name C. speciosa in all subsequent literature. The epithet speciosa having been misapplied for so long, it seems advisable to discard it altogether and adopt for genuine C. speciosa, at the varietal level, the epithet micans, free of misleading connotations.