Citation: Senna sericea (Sw.) Albrecht & Symon, J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 19: 96. 2000. Cassia sericea Sw., Fl. Ind. Occ. 2: 724. 1798; Raghavan, Bull. Bot. Surv. India 22: 225. 1982; Sunil & Sivadasan, Fl. Alappuzha Dist. 256. 2009.

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Tamil name(s):

English name(s):

Description: Erect annual subshrubs to 150 cm tall. Whole palnt rufous hairy, especially the younger parts. Leaves paripinnate; rachis with stipitate yellow glands between each pair of leaflets; leaflets 3-4 pairs, opposite, subsessile, 2-5 x 1.5-3.5 cm, obovate-oblong, lowest pair smallest, base cuneate, apex rounded, apiculate, rufous hairy. Raceme axillary, 3-7-flowered; peduncle up to 1.5 cm long. Flowers yellow, c. 1 cm across; pedicel 3-5 mm long with a single stipitate gland near the base; bracts 5-10 mm long, linear, rufous hairy. Sepals 5, orbicular-cupular; outer 3 c. 3 mm long, with rufous long hairs externally; inner 2 c. 5 mm long, glabrous, margin ciliate. Petals 5, 5-6 x 4-5 mm, obovate, obtuse or rounded at apex; posterior one oblong with turncate or emerginate apex, shortly clawed at base. Fertile stamens 6-7, intermingled with stalked glands; filaments c. 2 mm long; anthers 1.5-2 mm long. Staminodes 3-4, 1.7-2.6 mm long, apex spathulate. Ovary sessile, c. 3 mm long, hirsute; style incurved; stigma turncate. Pods 3-6 in clusters, 10-40 x 3-4 mm, linear, slightly 4-gonous, very hairy when young, lesser afterwards, 3-9-seeded, beaked. Seeds 4-5 x 2.5-2 mm, sub-quadrangular- rhomboidal, brown.

Habit: Shrub

Flowering & Fruiting: October-December

District(s): Alappuzha

Medicinal:

Habitat: Wastelands

Distribution: Native of Tropical America

Aquatic: No

Epiphyte(s): No

Saprophyte: No

Stem parasite: No

Root parasite: No

Flower colour(s): Yellow

Weed: No

Monocot/Dicot: Dicotyledonous Plants

Exotic: Yes

Garden: No

Edible: No

Vegetable: No

Endemic to:

IUCN status:

Altitude:

Localities: Chengannur

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