粉叶决明 fen ye jue ming

Cassia sulfurea Colladon, Hist. Nat. Méd. Casses, 84. 1816; C. glauca Lamarck; C. surattensis N. L. Burman subsp. glauca (Lamarck) K. Larsen & S. S. Larsen; Senna surattensis (N. L. Burman) H. S. Irwin & Barneby subsp. glauca (Lamarck) X. Y. Zhu.

Shrubs, large, or small trees. Young shoots pilose, later glabrescent. Leaves 15-30 cm, with a clavate gland 1-2 mm on rachis between each of lowest 2 pairs of leaflets; stipules cadu­cous, linear; petiole 3.5-6.5 cm; petiolules ca. 3 mm; leaflets 4-6 pairs, usually 5 pairs, abaxially farina-white, adaxially greenish, ovate or elliptic, 3.5-10 × 2.5-4 cm, base broadly cuneate or subrounded, apex obtusely rounded or inconspicu­ously emarginate. Racemes in axils of leaves in upper part of branches; peduncles 3-10 cm; rachis 1-6 cm; bracts ovate, 3-8 mm, apex acute, finally reflexed. Pedicels 1-3 cm. Sepals green to reddish brown, unequal, outer 2 suborbicular, ca. 3 mm in diam., inner 3 obovate, 6-9 mm. Petals bright yellow (drying orange or pinkish brown), ovate or obovate, 1.5-2.5 cm, 5-veined, clawed. Stamens 10, all fertile, with short, thick fila­ments, lowest 2 with longer filaments; anthers subequal, opening by short, apical slits. Ovary hairy; style glabrous. Leg­ume glossy, flat, straight, strap-shaped, dehiscent, 12-20 × 1.2-1.8 cm, with long, slender beak on top, valves papery. Seeds 20-30, oblong-elliptic, ca. 7 × 4 mm.

Cultivated in Fujian, Guangdong, ?Guizhou, Yunnan [native to India, Laos, Malaysia (Peninsular), Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Aus­tralia, Pacific islands (Polynesia); now naturalized in the neotropics].