Aeschynomene sensitiva Sw.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Fabaceae

• Scientific Name

  Aeschynomene sensitiva Sw.

• Description

  
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  Species Description - One of the tribes of the pea Family (Hedysareae) is characterized by the pods being jointed between each seed, in ripening falling apart into 1-seeded segments. Whether this feature is of any service to the plant, or not, may only be conjectured, but, at all events, it is useful in botanical classification; several genera, in the Porto Rico Flora, illustrate this structure of the fruit, among them Pictetia, a tree, also illustrated in this work, the others herbaceous. Yerba de Cienega is abundant in fresh-water marshes and shallow lakes, at lower and middle elevations, is distributed through most of the West Indies, except Jamaica and the Bahamas, and has also been recorded as in tropical Africa, where it may have been introduced. Aeschynomene (Greek, to be ashamed, referring to the sensitive leaves), is a Linnaean genus, composed of about 35 species of herbs or shrubs, inhabiting warm and tropical regions. Their leaves are once-compound, with from few to many pairs of small, thin leaflets, sometimes also a terminal one, which fold together during approaching darkness, or when shocked by breakage of the plant, but they are not nearly as sensitive to the touch as those of the Sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica). The small, yellow flowers are clustered in the leaf-axils; the teeth of the calyx are somewhat united into 2 lips; the nearly round, standard petal has a short claw, the somewhat oblique wing-petals are about as long as the standard, but narrower, and the narrow keel is curved; the 10 stamens are united by their filaments into 2 sets of 5, with anthers all alike; the stalked ovary contains from few to many ovules. The small, stalked, flat, narrow pods are jointed between the seeds. Aeschynomene sensitiva, is shrubby, but not very woody, upright, branched, from 1 to 4 meters high, smooth, or sparingly hairy. The leaves are from 2 to 10 centimeters long, with from 10 to 25 pairs of narrow leaflets, which are blunt, or minutely tipped, from 5 to 9 millimeters long, with few, obscure veins. The flowers are few together, in small, stalked clusters, the deeply cleft calyx 3 or 4 millimeters long, the standard petal from 8 to 10 millimeters long. The pods are from 2 to 5 centimeters long, from 3.5 to 5 millimeters wide, smooth, or nearly so, both margins slightly wavy, the 4 to 10 joints nearly quadrate. Two other species inhabit Porto Rico, Aeschynomene americana, widely distributed nearly throughout tropical America, known as Yerba rosario, and Aesohynomene portoricensis, endemic, mostly restricted to the northern and western districts.

• Discussion

  Yerba de cienega Sensitive Marsh-weed Pea Family Aeschynomene sensitiva Swartz, Prodromus 107. 1788. Aeschynomene fistulosa Bello, Apuntes pars la Flora de Puerto Rico