Senna hirsuta var. hirsuta

  • Title

    Senna hirsuta var. hirsuta

  • Authors

    Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Senna hirsuta (L.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby var. hirsuta

  • Description

    138g. Senna hirsuta (Linnaeus) Irwin & Barneby var. hirsuta. Cassia hirsuta Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 378. 1753, sens. str.—"Habitat in America."—Holotypus (Brenan, 1967, p. 80), a plant cultivated at Hartekamp and described by Linnaeus, Hort. Cliff. 159. 1737 = Herb. Cliffort., Cassia No. 4 (lvs only), BM!—Ditremexa hirsuta (Linnaeus) Britton & Rose ex Britton & Wilson, Sci. Surv. Porto Rico & Virgin Is. 5(3): 372. 1924.

    Cassia venenifera Rodschied, Medizin. und Chirurg. Bemerk. holland. Kolonie Rio Essequebo 43. 1796.—Described from plants observed near the mouth of Essequibo River, Guyana; no typus survives at GOETT.—Equated with C. hirsuta by Bentham, 1871, p. 534.

    Cassia caracasana Jacquin, Pl. Rar. 3: 11, t. 270. 1798.—"Crescit ad Caracas ... In caldario [horti schoebrunnensis] colitur . . ."—No typus seen, to be sought at W, but the description and plate decisive for the species, the place of origin and description of pod for the var — Equated with C. hirsuta by Vogel, 1837, p. 32, and by Bentham, 1871, p. 534.

    Cassia tomentosa Wallich ex Arnott in Wight & Amott, Prod. Fl. Pen. Ind. Or. 1: 286. 1834, nom. nud.—The plant (Wallich Cat. 5304) equated with C. hirsuta by Bentham, 1871, p. 534.

    Cassia hirsuta sensu Colladon, 1816, p. 108; Vogel, 1837, p. 32; Bentham, 1870, p. 114, t. 34, fig. 1; 1871, p. 534; Schery, 1951, fig. 124 ("C. leptocarpa hirsuta"); De Wit, 1955, p. 250 (with summary bibliography); Symon, 1966, p. 88; Brenan, 1967, p. 80.

    Ditremexa hirsuta sensu Britton & Rose, 1830, p. 256.

    Except for the pod in all respects like var. hirta, technically indistinguishable at anthesis; ovules 60-96; pod 11-15 x (0.4-)0.45-0.65 cm, slightly or moderately curved outward, the valves densely permanently bristly-hirsutulous with ascending hairs.—Collections: 59.

    Forest margins, thickets, shores, disturbed and regenerating scrub-woodlands, becoming a vigorously aggressive weed along roads, in pastures, orchards, and in rural and urban waste places, over most of its range confined to the lowlands but ascending to 1000-1900 m in Andean Colombia and Venezuela and to 900 m on the Brazilian Planalto, discontinuously widespread around the n. and n.-e. edges of South America, from Panama (Bocas del Toro and Darien) e. and s.-e. across Venezuela and the Guianas to the middle Tocantins and Parnaiba valleys in Maranhao, Brazil, n. through Trinidad and some Windward Is. (St. Vincent, Martinique, Guadeloupe) to Puerto Rico; Jamaica (probably only naturalized); introduced in cocoa plantations in Bahia, along highways in s.-e. Goias, in e. Bolivia, and to be expected elsewhere in the lowland Neotropics. Long naturalized in the wet tropics of the Old World (Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, New Caledonia, Queensland).—Fl. in the Neotropics nearly throughout the year.— Frijolillo de monte (Panama); aytera cimarrona (Venezuela); erva de bicho (Maranhao).