长穗决明 chang sui jue ming

Cassia didymobotrya Fresenius, Flora 22: 53. 1839.

Shrubs, 2.5-3 m tall. Young branches and leaves puberu­lent, glabrescent when old. Leaves to 35(-50) cm; stipules tardily deciduous, ovate-cordate, 6-17 mm, acuminate; petiole and rachis without glands, puberulent; petiolules very short; leaflets 8-16 pairs, abaxially farina-white, ovate-oblong or lan­ceolate-oblong, 3-5.5 × 1-2 cm, base rounded and oblique, apex obtuse or subacute, mucronate. Racemes in axils of leaves in upper part of branches, 10-35 cm, sometimes several arranged in a terminal leafy panicle; bracts caducous, imbricate, broadly ovate, apex subacute or acuminate. Sepals oblong-obo­vate. Petals yellow, oblong or obovate, shortly clawed. Stamens 10, among them functionally 2 extra large, curved, ca. 12 mm. Ovary densely yellowish or pallid pilosulose. Legume com­pressed, ligulate-oblong, 8-10 × 1.6-1.8 cm, leathery, bicari­nate by sutures, apex with a long and slender awn, stipe 1-1.2 cm; fruiting pedicel ca. 1 cm. Seeds 9-16, obovoid-oblong, compressed. 2n = 28.

Cultivated in Hainan, ?Yunnan [native to tropical Africa; now naturalized in India and Sri Lanka].