Senna septemtrionalis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Senna septemtrionalis (Viv.) Irwin & Barneby

Family: Leguminosae - Caesalpinioideae

Synonyms

• Cassia floribunda auct., non Cavanilles,
• C. laevigata Willd.

Vernacular names

• Arsenic bush, Dooley weed, smooth senna (En)
• Indonesia: sentung (Javanese), kasingsat (Sundanese), gelanggang (Sumatra)
• Thailand: khilek-america (northern)
• Vietnam: bô cap nurôc.

Distribution

South and Central America, possibly originated in Mexico; naturalized in Java, rare in Indo-China, as an escape from cultivation. At present, it is widespread in the tropics, cultivated or as a weed.

Uses

Green manure and hedge plant. It is often grown as a shade plant in coffee plantations. The seeds are occasionally eaten as a pulse by tribal people in India; they have negligible anti-nutritional factors that are easily inactivated by cooking. Seed meal is used as fodder. Seeds are a coffee substitute in Guatemala. In Sumatra young leaves are eaten as a vegetable.

Observations

• Glabrous herb or shrub up to 4(-7) m tall. Branchlets fistular with membranous septa within.
• Leaves with 3-5 pairs of leaflets; rachis 6-12 cm long with a gland between all or at least the 2 lowest pairs of leaflets; leaflets ovate to elliptical, 4-11 cm × 2-3.5 cm, apex long-acuminate, glaucous below.
• Inflorescence an axillary or terminal raceme, 5-10 cm long; flowers 4-10; pedicel up to 2.5 cm long.
• Sepals very unequal, glabrous; petals suborbicular, 1-2 cm in diameter, yellow; stamens 10, 3 long, 4 short, 3 reduced ones with empty anthers.
• Pod cylindrical, 6-10 cm × 8-15 mm, dehiscing along ventral suture, 40-50-deeded.
• Seed ovoid, 6-8 mm in diameter, olive-green, shiny.

S. septemtrionalis is found on roadsides, forest edges, fallow land, plantations, from 900-2500 m altitude, although also recorded as low as 25 m.

Selected sources

• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr., R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. 647, 641, 761 pp.
• de Wit, H.C.D., 1956. The genus Cassia in Malaysia. Webbia 11: 197-292.
• Flora Malesiana (various editors), 1950-. Series 1. Volume 1, 4-. Kluwer, Dordrecht & Flora Malesiana Foundation, Leiden, the Netherlands.
• Flora of Tropical East Africa (various editors), 1952-. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom & A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
• Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Viêt-nam [Flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam] (various editors), 1960-. Volume 1-. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoire de Phanérogamie, Paris, France.
• McVaugh, R., 1987. Flora Novo-Galiciana: a descriptive account of the vascular plants of western Mexico. Volume 5, Leguminosae. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, United States.
• Verdcourt, B., 1979. A manual of New Guinea legumes. Botany Bulletin No 11. Office of Forests, Division of Botany, Lae, Papua New Guinea. 645 pp.

Authors

• M.S.M. Sosef & L.J.G. van der Maesen