Cassia siamea Illustration Credit: Asad

Tree, 2-30 m tall. Leaf 10.0-28.5 cm long; stipules caducous, 1 mm long. Leaflets 4-16 pairs, oblong to ovate-oblong, c. 2-7.5 cm long, c. 10-26 mm wide, lower surface pilose, upper glabrous to hairy. Flowers in long panicle of corymbs, up to 10 cm long. Pedicel 2.5-3.5 cm long. Sepals 5-6 mm long, elliptic, ovate, hairy at margins. Petals 1-2.0 cm long, ovate, broadly elliptic or orbicular, upper petal clawed. Anthers 10, 3 upper much reduced. Pod strap shaped, 15-30 cm long, 12-16 mm wide, 20-30 seeded.

Fl. Per.: November-March.

Distribution: Native of South-east Tropical Asia. Cultivated in gardens of W. Pakistan.

Common roadside and garden tree in plains. The leaves can be used as manure and the flowers are used in India as vegetable. It is one of the hosts of lac insect.