Cassiinae pt 1 NY-Botanical_gardens_Vol. 35_1 - Copy.pdf - Antbase

1982] CASSIINAE—SENNA 193
Stipules (caducous, htrie known) linear-oblanceolate 1.5-3.5 mm.
Lvs (3-)3.5-7 cm; periole including livid swollen pulvinus (9-)12-24 mm, at
middle 0.5-0.6 mm diam subterete; rachis 3-8 mm, obscurely sulcate ventrally;
gland between proximal pair plumply obovoid-pyriform or clavate, in profile
1.2-2.5 mm taU, the livid lustrous body 0.5-1.2 mm diam; lfts 2 pairs, the distal
ones broadly obovate obtuse or emarginate (18-)22-38 x (13-) 15-20 mm, 1.2-2
times as long as wide, at base very slightly or obscurely asymmetrical, the centric
midrib with 6-11 major (and some intercalary) secondary veins either prominu­
lous on both faces or subimmersed above, the major secondary ones widely
ascending to margin and there anastomosing with a prominently raised marginal
or subintramarginal nerve, the tertiary connecting venules prominulous at least
beneath to form an open coarse reticulum, the proximal pair of hts simUar but
shorter and proportionately wider, sometimes suborbicular.
Racemes few from axUs of distal lvs (often reduced to glanduliferous If-stalk)
1^-fld, the peduncle 0.5-1.5 cm, the axis almost 0; bracts subulate ±1-1.5 mm,
caducous; pedicels 1.7-2.5 cm; buds plumply obovoid glabrous; sepals (appar­
ently reddish paUid-margined) broadly oblong-obovate obtuse unequal, the inner
±10-12 mm, the outermost ±V2 shorter; petals (httle known) yeUow glabrous up
to ±23 mm; androecium glabrous, the filaments of 4 median stamens ±2 mm, of
3 abaxial ones 5-9 mm, the anthers of 4 median stamens 4.5-5.5 mm nearly
straight up to the abruptly divaricate 2-porose beak ±0.5 mm, those of 3 abaxial
ones Innately incurved, the body 7-9 mm contracted into a subulate erect, slightly
incurved 2-porose beak 1-1.5 mm; ovary glabrous or strigulose; style ±2.5 mm,
little dilated distaUy, ±0.4-0.6 mm diam below the stigma, the stigmatic aperture
0.2-0.45 mm diam; ovules ±80-90.
Pod (httle known) spreading-recurved, the stipe ±0.8 cm, the narrowly cylindric
body ±14 X 0.6 cm, when ripe apparently resembhng that of C splendida,
the ventral suture 1.5-2 mm wide, the valves castaneous smooth or faintly venulose,
the biseriate seeds (not seen) reportedly (Sucre 10254, RB) embedded in
sweet pulp sought by ants.—Collections: 7.
Caatinga thickets below 700 m, known only from scattered stations in n. Piaui
(Lagoa do Potinho), centr. Piaui (Oeiras) and Chapada Diamantina in centr. Bahia
(Sa. d'Agurua).—Fl. IX-X, II, IV, the full season unknown.
Bentham described Cassia gardneri from two flowering specimens and provisionally
referred it, along with C. corifolia, to a ser. Coriaceae of sect. Proso­
sperma, some members of which have simUar flowers and androecium. The flower,
however, is also essentially that of S. splendida and S. georgica and the pod,
collected recently for the first time in northern Piaui, turns out to be the tubular
one of sect. Chamaefistula ser. Bacillares, with seeds lying across the long axis
of the valves in a bed of pulp. Among east Brasilian Bacillares with strongly
dimorphic stamens S. gardneri now emerges as closest to the two species just
mentioned, differing from S. georgica in the much smaller leaflets, from S. splen­
dida in the obovate-suborbicular, proportionately much broader leaflets, and from
both (as indeed from all members of the series) in the strong marginal nerve which
forms an elevated rim around the leaflets connected to the midrib by straight,
widely ascending secondary venation.
46. Senna georgica Irwin & Barneby, nom. & stat. nov. Cassia hoffmannseggU
var. gardneriana Bentham in Martius, Fl. Bras. 15(2): 104. 1870.—
Typus infra sub var. georgica indicatur.
Shrubs and treelets at anthesis (l-)2-5(-6) m, erect when free-standing but with