光叶决明 guang ye jue ming

Cassia septemtrionalis Viviani, Elench. Pl. 14. 1802; C. laevigata Willdenow.

Shrubs or small trees, 1-4 m tall. Young branches green, smooth, glabrous. Leaves ca. 15 cm; rachis 6-12 cm, with a clavate or conical gland between all except upper pair of leaf­lets; stipules early caducous, linear; leaflets 3 or 4 pairs, abax­ially farina-white, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 5-11 × 2-3.5 cm, both surfaces glabrous, base cuneate or narrowly cuneate, sometimes oblique, apex acute to acuminate. Racemes axillary or terminal, 4-10-flowered, 5-10 cm including peduncle 2.5-5 cm; bracts caducous, linear-lanceolate, 2-5 mm. Pedicels 1.5-2.5 cm. Sepals yellowish green, ovate-elliptic, unequal, inner 8-10 mm, outer shorter. Petals bright yellow, ovate-orbicular, 1-1.5(-2) cm, shortly clawed. Fertile stamens 7, unequal, anthers opening by apical pores; 3 staminodes with anthers flat, subor­bicular, non-functional. Ovary glabrous; style linear. Legume terete, 6-10 × ca. 1 cm, slightly subquadrangular when fully mature, valves subleathery, tardily dehiscent. Seeds 50-70, olive-colored, glossy, obovoid, flat, 5-6 mm.

Cultivated in Guangdong, Guangxi [native to tropical America; widely cultivated in the tropics].