Senna siamea (Lam.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby
-
Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
-
Family
Caesalpiniaceae
-
Scientific Name
-
Description
Species Description - Tree to 15 m tall; bark smooth, grayish. Leaves 15-30 cm long; leaflets 3-10 pairs, 4.5-7.5 cm long, oblong-elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, chartaceous, glabrous or puberulent, the apex obtuse, truncate, notched or mucronate, the base rounded, the margins entire; rachis without glands; stipules awl-shaped, deciduous. Flowers in terminal panicles; pedicels 1.7-3.0 cm long; bracts lanceolate, 5-6 mm long, deciduous. Calyx of 5 expanded, unequal, concave, rounded, green sepals, 5-9 mm; petals yellow, 1-1.8 cm long, obovate to oblanceolate, clawed, rounded at apex, 2 of them smaller; stamens 10, of equal size, but only 7 fertile, the filaments of all shorter than the petals; ovary pubescent, oblong, the style curved. Legume 15-30 cm long, linear-oblong, flattened, woody, brown, the margins thickened, the valves with alternate mound and depressions over the seeds, dehiscent along both sutures. Seeds 6-8 mm long, lenticular, light brown, smooth.
-
Discussion
Common name: yellow cassia.
-
Distribution
Common roadside tree of humid areas. Cruz Bay (A1989). Also on St. Thomas; native to Burma and Thailand, cultivated or naturalized throughout the tropics.
Thailand Asia| Burma Asia| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America|