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

1982] CASSIINAE—SENNA 351
(3-)4-6 pairs, moderately accrescent distaUy, the distal pair elhptic or lance-el­
liptic obtuse or minutely emarginate (l9-)23-46 x (7-)8-14 mm, 2.6-3.3 times as
long as wide, at base asymmetrically rounded or subcordate, the (mature) margin
plane, the midrib immersed above, stoutly cariniform beneath, the (7-)8-ll pairs
of very slender camptodrome secondary veins barely perceptible on either face
or faintly raised beneath, tertiary venulation 0.
Racemes 7-20-fld, the 1-2 simultaneously expanded fls raised ± to level of
ascending, obhquely obovoid buds, the axis with peduncle together (3.5-)4-10.5
cm; bracts resembhng stipules in texture, green or eventually brunnescent, ovate-
acuminate or lanceolate 2-5 x 1.4-2.4 mm, sometimes revolute but sometimes
plane, persistent into or sometimes beyond anthesis of subtended fl; pedicels
10-21 mm; sepals submembranous brown or fuscous, the inner ones narrowly
paUid-margined, all ovate or obovate obtuse, moderately graduated, the smaUest
outer one 4-5.5 the largest inner one 6-10 mm; corolla zygomorphic, the glabrous
short-clawed petals yellow drying brownish-yellow brown-veined, the flabellateobovate
vexillar one 8.5-12 mm, the rest nearly as long; androecium glabrous,
the blade of 3 staminodes 1.2-1.6 x 0.8-1.5 mm, the filaments of 4 median stamens
1.1-2.5 mm, of the centric abaxial one 2-2.5 mm, of the 2 long lateroabaxial
ones 5.5-8.5 mm, the anthers of 4 median stamens narrowly flask-shaped
3-3.9 X 0.9-1 mm, ofthe sterile abaxial one 2.5-4.5 x 0.5-0.7 mm, ofthe 2 long
ones Innately lanceolate in profile 5.5-8.5 x 1.1-1.5 mm, the obscurely differentiated,
horizontally truncate beak of these 0.4-0.6 x 0.6-0.7 mm, its orifice
divided by slender septum into 2 pores; ovary thinly strigulose-pUosulous; style
glabrous Unear-attenuate 3.5^.9 mm, at gently incurved apex 0.2-0.3 mm diam;
ovules 30-36.
Pod (Uttie known) obliquely ascending or dechned, the stipe 5-6 mm, the fully
fertUe (often in fact imperfect and variously distorted or mahormed) body Unear
subterete ±5-6.5 x 0.7-1.2 ("-1.5") cm, the valves firmly chartaceous smooth,
brown or castaneous, the seed-locules ±2-2.5 mm long, as wide as the pod's
cavity, apparently thinly pulpy within; seeds transverse, turned with broader
faces to the septa, plumply compressed obovoid 4.5-5.5 ("-6.5") x 2.5-3.5("^")
mm, the testa brown or atrocastaneous lustrous smooth or remotely pitted, ex­
areolate.—Collections: 8.—Fig. 27.
Shrub-thickets and disturbed brush-woodland in the monte or ceja de montaiia
formations, 2200-2850 m, local on and along the Andean divide in s. Ecuador
(Loja) and n. Peru (Cajamarca, prov. Chota and Cajamarca), lat. 4°-7°20'S; and
distantly disjunct, in unrecorded habitats at 1200-1800 m, on w. slope of Cerros
Volcan and Horqueta in n.-w. Chiriqui, Panama.—Fl. VII-XII, II-III, perhaps
throughout the year.
Senna cajamarcae closely resembles S. mandoni in habh of growth and in the
strongly bicolored, dorsaUy glaucescent, almost veinless leaflets, but differs in
the more persistent, firmly herbaceous stipules and floral bracts, a less strongly
incurved style, and especiaUy in the subterete pod that contains seeds turned
with broader faces to the septa and not to the valves. The herbaceous rephcate
stipules might suggest relationship to S. versicolor, certainly almost and perhaps
actually sympatric in Cajamarca, but this is obviously different at anthesis in hs
more numerous (8-13, not 3-6) pairs of leaflets and later on in the piano-com­
pressed pod and the areole on the seed-faces. We see no close connection with
S. pendula, of which the stipules are membranous and caducous.
The pod of S. cajaiimrcae appears quite variable in girth, and Lasseigne de­
scribes the seeds as biseriate, although they are certainly uniseriate in the material
studied by us. The typus of Cassia pendula bracteata, known to us only through