Chamaecrista nigricans (Vahl) Greene (Syn: Cassia nigricans Vahl);

India (N); Andhra Pradesh; Karnataka; Kerala ; Maharashtra; Tamil Nadu; Angola (N) ; Benin (N); Burkina (N) ; Cameroon (N) ; Central African Rep. (N) ; Chad (N) ; Ethiopia (N); Gambia The (N); Ghana (N); Guinea Bissau (N); Kenya (N); Mali (N); Niger (N) ; Nigeria (N); Senegal (N); Sudan (N); Tanzania (N); Uganda (N); Zaire (N); Saudi Arabia (N); Yemen (N) as per ILDIS;


Annual herbs, upto 75 cm high, pubescent with short crisped and long spreading hairs. Leaves alternate, distichous in two planes across the plane of branching; leaf-rachis (including petiole) 5-9 cm long, pubescent; leaflets 7-18 pairs, 1-2.5 x 0.3-0.6 cm, narrowly oblong or linear-oblong, obtuse or rounded at apex, mucronate, oblique at base, pubescent, mid-nerve almost centric; gland solitary, sessile, 2-4 mm long, cushion-shaped, covering half to one-third upper part of petiole; stipules 4-6 mm long, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, pubescent. Flowers 2 to 5 together, supra-axillary; pedicels 1-3 mm long, pubescent; bracts and bracteoles linear, acute, pubescent. Sepals 4-5 mm long, acute, pubescent outside. Petals yellow or yellowish red, equalling the sepals. Stamens 10, all fertile or rarely 3 reduced to staminodes; anthers of 3 different sizes, linear, dehiscing apically. Ovary appressed hairy; style stout, glabrous; stigma punctiform. Pods 2-3 x 0.5 cm, erect, linear-oblong, flat, straight, pubescent, 2-valved, 4 to 10-seeded; valves coiling on dehiscence; seeds 2.5-3.5 x 1.5-2.5 mm, suborbicular, obovate; areole absent; albumen thin.

Flowering and fruiting: November-March
Grassy slopes
West Asia, Tropical Africa, India and Sri Lanka

(Attributions- Dr. N Sasidharan (Dr. B P Pal Fellow), Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi


  


images by Dr. P. Santhan

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Chamaecrista nigricans (Vahl) Greene SN 15Feb 11 : 1 post by 1 author. Attachments (3)

Chamaecrista nigricans (Vahl) Greene (= Cassia nigricans Vahl.)  
erect wild herb or undershrub from Tirunelveli and Ambasamudthiram area of Tamilnadu