Senna pendula var. advena (Vogel) H.S.Irwin & Barneby

Authors

Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby

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.

Family

Caesalpiniaceae

Scientific Name

Senna pendula var. advena (Vogel) H.S.Irwin & Barneby

Type

Holotypus, comm. Hoffmannsegg, B-WILLD 7958!

Synonyms

Cassia indecora Kunth, Chamaefistula indecora (Kunth) G.Don, Cassia bicapsularis var. indecora (Kunth) Benth., Cassia medellinensis Posada-Ar., Cassia manzanilloana Rose, Adipera indecora Britton & Rose, Adipera arborea Britton & Killip

Description

Variety Description - Diffuse, weakly erect or leaning, vinelike and potentially arborescent shrubs at anthesis (0.7-)1.5-5(-7) m, commonly but not always more densely pubescent than other vars. of S. pendula, the stems and lf-stalks pilosulous with straight spreading or loosely incumbent hairs up to 0.2-0.5 mm or less, often glabrescent or fully glabrous, the dorsal face of lfts commonly pilosulous overall with ascending straight or sinuous hairs up to 0.3-1 mm, but the vesture sometimes confined to midrib or its anterior basal angle, the ventral face usually glabrous, rarely remotely pilsoulous; petiolar gland between proximal pair and sometimes also the next pair of lfts, these 4-5 pairs, obovate or obovate-cuneate, the distal pair (20-)24-44(-50) x 10-18(-20) mm, the secondary camptodrome veins (5-)6- 8(-9) pairs, the tertiary venulation immersed or on dorsal face weak and irregular; longest sepal 9.5-11.5(-13) mm; longest petal 12-15(-16) mm; blade of staminodes inversely deltate 1.2-2(-2.5) x 1.9-2.7(-3.5) mm, usually wider than, rarely as wide as long; 2 long filaments (6.5-)7-11.5 mm, their anther (beak included) 6.5- 8(-10) x 1.1-1.5(-1.6) mm, constricted (1-) 1.2-2 mm below apex into a tubular beak at orifice 0.5-0.8(-0.9) mm diam; ovary pilosulous, often densely so; style 4.8-6.5(-7) mm; ovules 80-122; body of pod cylindric or almost so 8-15 x 1-1.2 cm, the seeds 2-seriate.—Collections: 69. [Key: " Lfts obovate or oblanceolate, rarely elliptic-oblanceolate, broadest above (exceptionally near) the middle; range of the whole sp. Style at and after anthesis 1.5-5 mm and the 2 long abaxial filaments 6-11 mm. Plants of Mexico, West Indies, Central America and of South America n. and w. of the Orinoco-Amazon forests. Long anthers, including beak, if any, (5.5-)6-14 mm; widespread, but not on Puerto Rico. Beak of 2 long anthers (1-)1.2-2 mm, the dilated orifice 0.5-0.9 mm diam, the whole longer than wide; blade of staminodes inversely obtuse deltate, broader than long; cirum-Caribbean to w. Mexico, s. to centr. Colombia. Style 5-10 mm and filaments of 2 long stamens (10-)11-20 mm. Plants of Mexico, Central America, West Indies, Venezuela, Colombia and Pacific Ecuador. Blade of staminodes inversely deltate; beak of 2 long anthers (1-)1.2-2 mm, at orifice 0.5-0.9 mm; widespread in range indicated at choice 11 above."]

Distribution and Ecology - Disturbed woodland, thickets, forest margins and riverbanks, in either dry stony or rich, seasonally wet soils, becoming weedy along highways and garden fences, ascending from near sea level in w. Mexico, the Greater Antilles and the Magdalena valley in Colombia to 900 m in Guatemala, to 1950 m in Colombia and to 2150 m in Venezuela, interruptedly widespread and locally common along the Pacific slope from near 23°N in Sinaloa, Mexico to Panama; in submontane and lowland valleys of Colombia from Cauca to Norte de Santander, thence e. discontinuously through s.-e. and n.-centr. Venezuela to the Orinoco Delta and Trinidad; Hispaniola and e. Cuba (Oriente); formerly adventive in s.-w. Europe; cultivated in Hawaiian Is.—Fl. in Mexico and Central America IX-III, in Antilles XI-IV, in S. America primarily IX-VI, erratically through the year.

Discussion

Although Cassia indecora, our S. pendula var. advena, has been described as more densely pubescent than its close relatives, this is only an approximation to the truth, the vesture being quite variable, that of the leaflets sometimes reduced to a tuft of hairs dorsally. There is in actuality only one feature unique to var. advena, the emphatic and abrupt constriction of the long anthers into a beak as long or longer than the diameter of its orifice. This beak is, however, variable in development and at its shortest (± 1 mm) is only by a fraction either proportionately or actually longer than the beak in var. hemirostrata. As compared with var. ovalifolia, which replaces it northward on both the Pacific and the Gulf slopes in Mexico, var. advena differs further, but only slightly, in the usually longer style (±5-8, not 3-5 mm) and in the transversely dilated, therefore ob- deltate rather than trapeziform blade of the staminodes. There is no obvious way to distinguish fruiting specimens. The range of var. advena fits neatly into the gap between those of var. ovalifolia northward, of var. hemirostrata in the Belize-Peten region, and of the Andean longistylous varieties of S. pendula to the south; it is just what would be expected of one unit in a replacement series but highly improbable for a sibling species independent of the rest. We readily follow unpublished annotations of Lasseigne in reducing Adipera arborea to synonymy, for the size of corolla, the shape of petiolar glands and the stature of the plants which figured as diagnostic in the protologue have all proved ineffective and nothing to replace them has been found.

Common Names

Moco de chompipe, brusca de Pascua , Urumaco

Distribution

Sinaloa Mexico North America| Cauca Colombia South America| Norte de Santander Colombia South America| Oriente Cuba South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America| Hawaii United States of America North America| West Indies| Panama Central America| Venezuela South America| Guatemala Central America|