密叶决明 mi ye jue ming

Cassia multijuga Richard, Actes Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 108. 1782.

Shrubs, small trees, or trees, 7-20(-40) m tall. Young parts generally puberulent; branchlets reddish brown when dry. Leaves 12-20 cm; stipules early caducous, linear; rachis and petiole puberulent, with a long, ovoid gland on rachis between lowest pair of leaflets (often early caducous); leaflets 10-26(-50) pairs, linear-oblong or oblong, 1.2-4 × 0.6-0.8 cm, both surfaces puberulent or adaxially glabrous, apex obtusely rounded, mucronate, slightly oblique. Racemes several, arranged in a terminal, leafy panicle 10-20(-40) cm; peduncle and pedicels puberulent. Flowers 2.5-4 cm in diam.; bracts ovate, ca. 2 mm, tomentose. Sepals greenish yellow when ma­ture, slightly unequal, 5-6 mm. Petals yellow, ovate-oblong, 1-2(-3) cm, glabrous. Fertile stamens 7, 3 larger, with filament ca. 10 mm and anthers 6-7 mm, staminodes 3, tiny. Ovary linear, glabrous. Legume dark brown, flat, broadly linear, obtuse. Seeds 30-60, flattened, ca. 6 mm.

Cultivated in Guangdong (Guangzhou) [native to tropical Ameri­ca; widely cultivated in the tropics].