Senna santanderensis (Britton & Killip) H.S.Irwin & Barneby
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Authors
Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby
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Authority
Irwin, Howard S. & Barneby, Rupert C. 1982. The American Cassiinae. A synoptical revision of Leguminosae tribe Cassieae subtrib Cassiinae in the New World. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 35, part 1: 1-454.
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Family
Caesalpiniaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Holotypus, NY! isotypus, US!—Six paratypi, Killip & Smith 16101, 16886, 18397, 19224, 19518, 20495, all NY, US!—Cassia santanderensis (Killip & Smith) Lasseigne, Iselya 1(1): 11. 1979.
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Synonyms
Adipera santanderensis Britton & Killip, Cassia santanderensis (Britton & Killip) Lass., Adipera jahnii Pittier ex Britton & Rose
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Description
Species Description - Arborescent shrubs and round-headed trees 2-4 m with trunk attaining 25 cm diam, except for the glabrous upper face of lfts pilosulous throughout with straight spreading, spreading-incurved or less often incumbent yellowish hairs up to 0.3-0.6 mm, the lfts in addition charged beneath with many short thickened orange trichomes, the ample foliage bicolored, the lfts when dry dull dark brownish- green above, paler beneath, the inflorescence a panicle of racemes proximally leafy-bracteate and immersed in foliage but often shortly exserted distally. Stipules spreading-incurved or reflexed, firmly herbaceous, when spread out broadly oblanceolate acute or acuminate (4-)5-8.5 x (2-)2.5-5 mm, but the blade folded backward on itself and thus appearing falcately oblanceolate, deciduous tardily but before the lf. Lvs (except some high in the panicle) 8-18 cm; petiole including turgid but not much dilated pulvinus 10-26(-37) mm, at middle 0.9-1.8 mm diam, narrowly winged and openly shallowly sulcate ventrally; rachis (2.5-)3.5-9.5 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments (10-) 12-21 mm; glands (much eaten) sessile or shortly stipitate between proximal and often some or all distal pairs of lfts, in profile 1.2-2.5 mm tall, the ovoid or lance-ovoid acute body 0.5-1.1 mm diam; pulvinules l-1.8(-2) mm; lfts 4-6(-7) pairs, strongly accrescent distally, the terminal pair broadly lance- or narrowly ovate-elliptic, obtuse mucronulate or triangular-acute 3-7(-7.5) x 1-1.9 cm, 2.6-3.7 times as long as wide, at strongly asymmetric base cordate always on proximal and sometimes on both sides, the margin strongly re volute, the midrib deeply and 8-13 pairs of camptodrome secondary veins faintly depressed-sulcate above, all sharply elevated beneath, a few weak intercalary secondary veins visible beneath but all tertiary venulation immersed. Racemes mostly 10-35 (some depauperate distal ones only 4-10)-fld, the 1-3 simultaneously expanded fls raised about to level of spreading-ascending fl-buds, the axis together with stout ascending peduncle becoming (4-)6-16 cm; bracts submembranous ovate- or triangular-acuminate 4-8(-9) x 1.5-4(-5) mm, early papery and usually deciduous before full anthesis; mature pedicels 1.3-2.8 cm; fl-buds obliquely obovoid, thinly pilosulous externally at least at base, the inner subpetaloid sepals glabrate; sepals not strongly graduated, obovate or the inner oblong-obovate, the smallest outer one (5.5-)6-9 mm, the largest inner one (7-)8-10.5 mm; petals glabrous, zygomorphic, the vexillar one broadest emarginate, the abaxial ones narrowest, the longest 11.5-16 mm; staminodes x 1-1.4 mm; filaments of 4 median stamens 1.7-2.8 mm, of the centric abaxial one 2.7-4 mm, of the 2 long latero-abaxial ones dilated 4-6.5 mm, the anthers of 4 median stamens 4.4-6 x 1.2-1.4 mm, obliquely truncate at apex, of the centric sterile abaxial one 5-6 x 0.5-0.7 mm, of the 2 long abaxial ones 6.6-8.5 x 1.5-1.9 mm, lunately lanceolate in outline, bluntly sagittate at base, subhorizontally truncate at apex and 2-porose; ovary densely strigulose-pilosulous; style glabrous linear-filiform 3-4.5 mm, abruptly hamately incurved just below the terminal stigmatic cavity, there 0.2-0.3 mm diam; ovules 28-46. Pod obliquely pendulous, the stipe 4.5-6 mm, the broadly linear body 6-14 x 1.1-1.5 cm, at first piano-compressed but the firm green or fuscous, finally brown or nigrescent valves becoming low-convex at maturity, not or only obscurely corrugated, the uniseriate locules 2.5-4 mm long, as wide as the cavity, without pulp; seeds transverse, turned with their broader faces to the septa, plumply narrowly obovoid or claviform moderately compressed, 6-7.5 x 3-3.5 mm, the smooth brown or brown-olivaceous testa lustrous, exareolate.—Collections: 31.
Distribution and Ecology - Thickets, open hillsides with relic forest, ascending into subparamo, n.-ward in cloud-forest, in Cord, de Merida sometimes also planted around dwellings, (1600—) 1900-3200 m, locally plentiful along both slopes of the e. cordillera of the Andes between 7°15' and 9°30'N in n.-e. Colombia (n.-e. Santander and s. Norte de Santander) and n.-w. Venezuela (Tachira, Merida, Trujillo).—Fl. throughout the year, perhaps most prolifically X-III, the fruits long-persistent.
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Discussion
Our concept of S. santanderensis is equivalent to Cassia santanderensis Lasseigne (1979), limited, that is, to the plant of the eastern cordillera northward from about 7°N, and thereby excludes Lasseigne’s varieties in the equatorial and southern Andes which appear at once remotely allopatric and specifically distinct. The diagnostic traits of S. santanderensis sens, restr. are the firmly herbaceous, backwardly conduplicate stipules, the relatively large leaflets and calyx, the large size of the two long abaxial anthers by comparison with the sterile one between them, and the distally hooked style. The vars. canarensis and parvianthera Lasseigne differ collectively in their narrow plane thin-textured stipules, small calyx, smaller abaxial anthers all three fertile, and a straight or almost straight style; they constitute together our S. lasseigniana, described above. As Pittier (1945, sub Adipera jahnii, l.c.) has pointed out, the vesture of Venezuelan S. santanderensis is quite variable, the hairs being most often relatively coarse and erect, but sometimes finer and ascending or forwardly incumbent, but these pubescence types do not appear to be geographically segregated and are interpreted as minor variations. In exposed habitats near 3000 m the trees are sometimes dwarfed and crooked, the leaves smaller than in cloud forest conditions lower down, and the panicle more condensed.
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Common Names
Urumaco , brusco
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Distribution
Santander Colombia South America| Norte de Santander Colombia South America| Táchira Venezuela South America| Mérida Venezuela South America| Trujillo Venezuela South America|