Cassia nictitans L.
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Authority
Isley, Duane. 1975. Leguminosae of the United States: II. Subfamily Caesalpinioideae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 25 (2): 1-228.
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Family
Caesalpiniaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Low, diffuse to erect, simple to bushy-branched herbaceous annual, 1.5-4 dm, mostly pubescent with incurved hairs except for the leaflets. Leafstalk with a petiolar medial-distal stalked gland, discoid or cupuliform at apex; leaflets 7-19(-22) pairs, the number often diverse on a single plant, shortly oblong, 7-12 mm, 2.4-3.5 r, usually mucronulate. Stipules persistent, lanceolate, striate, 5-8 mm. Flowers 1-2 in supra-axillary fascicles on pedicels 2-3 mm. Sepals lanceolate-striate; corolla yellow, petals irregular, 2 red-marked at base, the largest 3-7(-8) mm, usually ventral; stamens 5, subsessile, reddish, becoming dark, various in length. Legume elastically dehiscent, erect, oblong, flat, 3-4(-5) cm long, 4-5 mm wide; valves thick-papery, obliquely impressed between seeds, puberulent, rarely glabrous or hirsute. Seeds few.
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Discussion
Chamaecrista multipinnata (Poll.) Greene (1897) Chamaecrista procumbens (L.) Greene (1899) Cassia nictitans var. mohrii (Poll.) Macbride (1919) Chamaecrista mohrii (Poll.) Small ex Britt. 8c Rose (1930) Cassia nictitans var. hehecarpa Fern. (1936) Cassia nictitans var. leiocarpa Fern. (1936) CN n — 8 (Senn, 1938; with reference also to somatic polyploidy in root tips). Cassia nictitans and C. fasciculata, respectively, are the small- and large-flowered Chamaecrista-Cassias ubiquitous throughout the eastern United States. Cassia nictitans, the ugly duckling when compared with the showy C. fasciculata, is essentially monomorphic over most of its range. Rarely the fruits of Cassia nictitans are glabrous (var. leiocarpa Fern.) or hirsute (var. hebecarpa Fern.). The latter, as treated by Pullen (1963) consists primarily of plants of the southeastern coastal plain having some stem villosity. I regard them as possibly representing intermediates between C. nictitans and C. aspera.8 Occasionally the leaflets are puberulent becoming var. mohrii (Pollard) Macbride, sporadic on the southern coastal plain, and recognized by Pullen (1963). Or the entire plant is glabrous, a state most common in Florida but occasional elsewhere, which includes Fernald’s var. leiocarpa. Because these are largely single-character forms and capricious in occurrence, I dismiss them nomenclaturally. However, the aspect of the species that has been called C. multipinnata Pollard, being based on several somewhat correlated characters, has hazy reality. As a variant, it contrasts with usual C. nictitans as follows: 1. Leaflets mostly imbricate, usually 8-14 pairs among populations geographically contiguous to the following; stems often robust, bushy-branched above base and erect; range of species. c. nictitans, typical. 1. Leaflets tending to remain divergent, therefore nonimbricate on dried material, 12-20 pairs, often slender-mucronate; stems often wiry, basally branched, low-spreading to prostrate; s coastal plain (Map 49). C. nictitans, variant 1. The variant does not replace the species in area of occurrence. The omnipresent southeastern distribution of C. nictitans terminates in the latitude of Levy and Volusia cos. in Florida except that the species continues sporadically southward along the west coast to Collier County (May 49). Isely (1958) has noted Cassia nictitans to be one of the prime invaders of abandoned farmland, disappearing in subsequent successional stages. Possibly it prefers drier soil than C. fasciculata. It has been used in mixtures with annual lespedezas in soil-improvement and conservation programs.
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Distribution
Massachusetts, se Nebraska, s to c Texas and Florida. Ruderal and pioneer habitats such as roadsides, thickets, abandoned fields; also in dry, open disturbed woodland, pastures; usually in sterile, sandy soils, often common. (June-)July-Sept.
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