Chamaecrista pilosa var. pilosa

  • Title

    Chamaecrista pilosa var. pilosa

  • Author(s)

    Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Chamaecrista pilosa (L.) Greene var. pilosa

  • Description

    28a. Chamaecrista pilosa (Linnaeus) Greene var. pilosa. Cassia pilosa Linnaeus 1759, l.c. & Sp. Pl. ed. 2, 540, descr. ampliat. 1762, sens. str.—". . . Brown. jam. 224 [=Cassia no. 12, P. Browne, Civ. Nat. Hist. Jamaica 224. 1756—. . grows in many parts of the island . . ."]. Habitat in Jamaica."—Holotypus, identified as C. pilosa by Solander, LINN 528/18!—Disterepta pilosa (Linnaeus) Rafinesque, Sylv. Tell. 126. 1838.

    Cassia emarginata Miller, Gard. Diet. ed. 8, Cassia no. 13. 1768.—"This grows plentifully in Jamaica."—Holotypus, presumably a plant cultivated at Chelsea from seed received from Houston, BM! = NY Neg. 112.—C. milleri Colladon, Hist. Casses 132. 1816, non C. emarginata Linnaeus, 1753.—Equated with C. pilosa by Bentham, 1871, p. 570.

    Chamaecrista macropoda Standley in Contrib. Nat. Herb. 17: 431. 1914.—"Type [US] no. 258959, collected on the Cerro Redondo, Department of Santa Rosa, Guatemala, ... in September, 1893, by Heyde and Lux (J. D. Smith, no. 6133)."—Holotypus, US! isotypi, GH, US (hb. Donn. Sm.)!—Cassia macropoda (Standley) Standley, Field Mus., Bot. 4: 213. 1929.—Equated with Chamaecrista pilosa by Britton & Rose, 1930, p. 277.

    Cassia pilosa sensu Colladon, 1816, p. 122, t. 20, fig. A; Bentham, 1871, p. 570.

    Lvs (1—) 1.5—4.5(—5) cm; lfts 2-5, in larger lvs at least 3 and commonly 4-5 pairs, oblong-oblanceolate or the distal pair semi-obovate, 7-24 x 2.5-9(-9.5) mm, the larger ones of any plant at least (10-) 12 x 3.5 mm; petiolar gland 0-1, the slender, fragile stipe 0.1-0.35(-0.5) mm.—Collections: 76.—Fig. 37 (androecium).

    Savannas, dunes, waste places, waysides, sometimes a weed in orchards or sandy pastures, mostly 0-500 m, but ascending in Jamaica to 750, in Guatemala to 1350 m, interruptedly circum-Caribbean: w. Cuba (Matanzas, La Habana, Pinar del Río, Isla de Pinos), Jamaica, Hispaniola (rare, Dajabón in Rep. Dominicana), n. Colombia (Magdalena, La Guajira), n. Venezuela (both slopes of Cordillera Costanera from Carabobo to Guárico, weedy at Pto. Ordaz on lower Orinoco) and Trinidad; very local and perhaps only a casual weed of cultivated land in Central America on Pacific slope of Mexico (Chiapas), Guatemala (Santa Rosa) and El Salvador, and in Guatemala once found on the Usamacinta slope (El Quiche); weedy in s. peninsular Florida (Palm Beach & Highland cos.).