节荚决明 jie jia jue ming

Cassia nodosa Buchanan-Hamilton ex Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. 2: 336. 1824.

Trees, deciduous. Branchlets pendulous, slender, thinly canescent. Leaves 15-30 cm; leaflets 5-12 pairs, 2-5 × 1.2-2 cm, subleathery, abaxially pilose, adaxially sparsely puberulent, base slightly asymmetric, apex acute or obtuse. Racemes lat­eral on short side branches; inflorescence axis slender. Sepals green (in living specimens), ovate. Petals deep yellow, ovate, 2.5-3 × 1-1.5 cm. Stamens 10, among them 3 abaxial ante­sepalous with longer filaments than other 7. Ovary linear, whitish pubescent. Legume blackish brown, terete, 30-45 × 1-1.5 cm, with conspicuous annular nodes. 2n = 24, 28.

Cultivated in S China [Indonesia (Java), Malaysia (Peninsular), Thailand; cultivated in the neotropics].