Senna pistaciifolia var. glabra

  • Title

    Senna pistaciifolia var. glabra

  • Authors

    Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Senna pistaciifolia var. glabra (Benth.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby

  • Description

    153b. Senna pistaciifolia (Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth) var. glabra (Bentham) Irwin & Barneby, comb. nov. Cassia pistaciifolia var. glabra Bentham, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 27: 551. 1871, based on C. fraxinifolia Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. Gen. & Sp. 6(folio): 349. 1824.— ". . . inter flumen Amazonum [=Maranon] et oppidum Jaen de Bra- camoros [Cajamarca, Peru], alt. 250 hex."—Holotypus, so labelled, P-HBK! former isotypus, †B, survives as F Neg. 1731!

    Cassia pearcei Bentham, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 27: 552. 1871.—"Bolivia, La Bama, at an elevation of 9000-10000 feet, Pearce—Holotypus, Pearce s.n. from "La Banca," K! = NY Neg. 7565; isotypus, BM!

    Cassia cuspidata sensu Macbride, 1943, p. 162.

    Cassia pearcei sensu Macbride, 1943, p. 177.Foliage usually quite glabrous, exceptionally the lfts strigulose beneath; otherwise as in key.—Collections: 12.

    Evergreen and deciduous brush-woodland (?450-)900-2800 m, scattered along the e. slope of the Peruvian Andes, on headwaters of Maranon and Ucayali rivers, from Cajamarca and immediately adjoining Lambayeque to Cuzco and (presumably adjoining n.-w.) Bolivia, at its extreme n.-w. limit in Lambayeque crossing the crest to the edge of the Pacific slope.—Fl. IX-IV(-VI).

    The var. glabra differs from var. pistaciifolia most visibly in the more numerous, usually quite glabrous leaflets. These are also the supposed differential characters of C. pearcei which we cannot distinguish from south Peruvian var. glabra. We have not found on any map the type-locality of C. pearcei, written by Bentham (perhaps by typographic error) "La Bama," but appearing on the label as "La Banca." The place was said by Bentham to be in Bolivia, but this does not appear on the original label; it may have been in Peru.

    The name C. cuspidata, published by Willdenow in 1809, which has obviously several years’ priority over C. fraxinifolia or C. pistaciifolia, was equated with the former by Vogel (1837, p. 37) and taken up by Macbride in Flora of Peru for the plant here called S. pistaciifolia var. glabra. The holotypus consists of a single leaf from a plant grown in the Botanic Garden at Berlin, preserved as Herb. Willdenov. 7979 (B). We are unable to identify this with certainty and are obliged to follow Bentham in treating C. cuspidata as a doubtful synonym.