Cassia

Taxonomy

Cassia C. Linnaeus Nom. cons. Sp. Pl. 376. 1 Mai 1753.

Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 1.2.16.
Tribe: Cassieae.
Subtribe: Cassiinae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 14 studied; ca. 30 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legume; unilocular; 20–75(–90) cm long; 1–5.5 cm wide; 1.5–3.5 cm thick; more than 9 times longer than wide; with deciduous androecial sheath; with deciduous corolla; with deciduous calyx; without orifice formed by curving of fruit or fruit segments; straight; not plicate; not twisted; asymmetrical; quadrangular, or linear; not inflated; compressed, or subtriangular, or terete; without beak; long tapered at apex to tapered at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; tapered at base to rounded at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; ligneous, or coriaceous; seed chambers externally invisible, or visible; margin usually not constricted; margin with sulcus (? stated as "keeled" or "doubly keeled"); margin embellished; margin with thickened sutural areas; wing(s) absent; substipitate to nonstipitate; indehiscent. Replum invisible. Epicarp dull; monochrome; reddish to blackish brown, or black; with surface texture uniform; glabrous; eglandular; without spines; smooth, or not smooth; with elevated features; veined, or not veined; reticulately veined; not tuberculate; exfoliating; with cracks; cracking transverse to fruit length; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp present; surface not veined; 2-layered (?); without balsamic vesicles; with fibers; without reniform canals; with fibers over solid layer (stated as "pulpy and malodorous when fresh or fiberous pithy and solid when dry); ligneous to coriaceous. Endocarp present; visible; dull; opaque; monochrome; brown, or black; without adhering pieces of testa; septate (separating from rest of fruit as 1-seeded segments, or as 2 ranks of 1-seeded locules (longitudinally septate)); not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; entire. Seed(s) 1–75; length oblique to fruit length, or transverse to fruit length (in C. hintoni); neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series, or 2 or more series. Funiculus 0.1–4 mm long; of 1 length only; filiform; plicate and straight (for 2/3 length). Aril absent.

Seed: 5.5–19 mm long; 4–11 mm wide; 2.5–5 mm thick; not overgrown; not angular; symmetrical; elliptic to ovate; compressed; with surface smooth; without visible radicle and cotyledon lobes; without hilar sinus; without umbo on seed faces; without medial ridge on each face. Cuticle not exfoliating; not inflated; not wrinkled. Testa present; without pieces of adhering epicarp; not adhering to endocarp; free from endocarp; glossy; not modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome; black to brown, or tan; glabrous; smooth, or not smooth; with elevated features; shagreen; osseous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines present; reticulate, or concentric. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe visible (darker in color and extending from hilum through lens to base and antiraphe either not discernible or low faint ridge from base to hilum). Hilum present; visible, or fully concealed; concealed by funicular remnant; without faboid split; punctiform; subapical to radicle tip (on face unlike others), or marginal according to radicle tip; recessed; not within corona, halo, or rim. Lens discernible; 0.1–2 mm long; with margins curved; elliptic; not in groove of raphe; mounded (in depression), or flush (at bottom of pit); same color as testa to similar color as testa; not within corona, halo, or rim. Endosperm present; thick; not pluglike and not resembling tip of radicle; adnate to testa. Cotyledons smooth; both outer faces convex; both the same thickness; both more or less of equal length; not folded; margin entire 180 degrees from base of radicle, or not entire 180 degrees from base of radicle; similar at apex; partially concealing radicle; with lobes; with lobes not touching; with the interface division terminating at base of radicle; without margins recessed; inner face flat; glabrous on inner face. Embryonic axis straight; parallel to length of seed; without a joint evident between the radicle and the cotyledons. Radicle differentiated from cotyledon; centered between cotyledons. Plumule rudimentary to moderately developed; glabrous.

Distribution

Generic Notes

Capitaine (1912) recognized three seed groups in Cassia s.l. His Group One, Cassia s.s. of Irwin and Barneby (1981, 1982), had seeds that are large, ovoid, compressed dorsiventrally, and the surface glossy and smooth. These characters were confirmed by Bentham (1871), Irwin (1964), Lasseigne (1979), Menezes (1981), Shyam and Vartak (1985), and this study. Irwin and Barneby reported that the fruits may be divided by "longitudinal septum into two ranks of 1-seeded locules." They also noted that seeds may be "imbedded in a wet malodorous pulp or a fibrous pith." Dorsiventrally compressed seeds also found in Afzelia (4.20) are rare in the Fabaceae. Seeds of C. moschata have a notch from face to face across the margin at the hilum. The fruits of C. grandis L. f. have been described as 'anachronistic' because they supposedly evolved for dispersal by Pleistocene megafauna that are now extinct (Barlow 2000).