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Senna holosericea (Fresen.) Greuter

Cassia holosericea Fresen.

Ara.: Sennamukki

Subshrub or shrub up to (0.5)1 m in height, hermaphrodite, evergreen, straight, branched from the base. Stems and older branches with brown bark, glabrous, in younger branches green and densely hairy. Leaves 6-15 cm, alternate, paripinnate, with stipules 3-7 mm, linear-lanceolate, rigid and hairy, with petiole 1-2 cm, eglandular, tomentose-velvety, and with 4-8 pairs of leaflets (10)15-25 × (5)7-9(13) mm, subsessile or with petiole up to 1 mm, oblong-lanceolate or elliptical-lanceolate, slightly asymmetric, obtuse or retrose at the apex, mucronate, rounded or attenuate at the base, margin entire, tomentose-velvety, light green on the upper side and somewhat glaucous on the underside. Inflorescences racemiform, solitary, axillary, up to 10 cm, erect, with pedicellate flowers, with pedicels up to 4 mm, densely pubescent. Calyx with 5 sepals fused into a short cupuliform structure, with 4-6 mm teeth, open in a star-shape, oblong or ovate, at least some of them hairy, greenish. Corolla with 5 petals 4-8 mm, open in a star-shape, ovate-oblong or obovate-oblong, yellow, with brown vernation, glabrous. Stamens 10, free, very unequal, the 2 lower stamens almost as long as the petals and with linear arcuate anthers, the medium stamens shorter and with straight anthers almost the same length as the filament, brown or greenish-yellow, and the 3 upper stamens transformed into staminodes. Ovary densely hairy. Pod 2.5-4(5) × 1.2-2(2.5) cm, reniform, highly compressed, with papery valves not crested at the seeds, rounded at both ends and often with a persistent style, green at first, turning brownish when mature, densely pubescent at least initially, with 4-10 seeds. Seeds (4.5)5-7 × 2-3(3.5) mm, obovoid, compressed, reticulate-rugose, yellowish-brown, glabrous.

Flowering:

March to May, although it depends on rainfall.

 

Fruiting:

April to June.

Habitat:

Semidesert and oases regions.

Distribution:

Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Arabian Peninsula, Socotra and southern Asia (Pakistan).

Conservation status:

A relatively common and widespread species, not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

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