Chamaecrista capensis E. Mey.
Creators: name: Musandiwa, Liada
name: Magee, Anthony R.
name: Boatwright, James S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Magnoliopsida
Fabales
Fabaceae
Chamaecrista
Chamaecrista capensis

description: 3. CHAMAECRISTA CAPENSIS (Thunb.) E.Mey., Comm. Pl. Afr. Austr. 1: 158 (1836); Brummitt in Fl. Zambesiaca 3(2): 131 (2007). <i>Cassia capensis</i> Thunb., Prodr. Pl. Cap. 1: 79 (1794); Thunb. in Fl. Cap. ed. Schult. 388 (1823); Vogel in Syn. Gen. Cassiae 64 (1837); Steyaert in Bull. Jard. Bot. Brux. 20: 250 (1950); Gordon-Gray in F.S.A. 16(2): 98 (1977). TYPE: SOUTH AFRICA. Eastern Cape, Stutterheim (3227), between Loerie and Sundays (Sondags) River [Kunukama River] (–AD), <i>Thunberg s.n.</i> (holotype: UPS [UPSTHUN9935]–image!). Perennial herbs, to 0.6 m high. Stems prostrate, erect to semi-erect, single or multi-stemmed, arising from a woody rootstock, often branched in the upper half, glabrescent or covered with short and/or long greyish or yellow hairs. Leaves paripinnate, 20–50 × 10–25 mm, linear or linear oblong, glabrous or with greyish hairs, slightly tapering distally; stipules, up to 14 mm, base oblique, apex acuminate, narrowly to broadly triangular, surface sub-glabrous or with short and long patent hairs; extrafloral nectaries towards the top of petioles, circular, concave, sub-sessile or attached with short stalk, sometimes lacking; rachis channelled. Leaflets (5)11–24-jugate, 2–10 × 1–3 mm, linear to linear oblong, base rounded to oblique, apex mucronate, margin with long hairs. Inflorescence axillary or supra axillary; flowers, 10–17 × 5–15 mm, (1)2–4 flowered; bract 2–4 mm long, base oblique, apex acuminate; bracteoles 2, glabrous, up to 4 mm long, towards top of pedicels. Pedicels with short curved and long patent hair, at flowering 18–40 mm, at fruiting, 18–45 mm long. Sepals 5, ovate, 6–10 × 2–4 mm, with short and long spreading hairs. Petals 5, bright yellow, 9–17 × 3–10 mm, obovate. Stamens 10, straight or slightly curved, anthers in two series, 5 small 2–4 mm long, 5 large 6–8 mm long, filaments very short, 1 mm long. Ovary up to 7 mm long, slightly curved, glabrous. Pods straight or slightly curved, (20)30–50 × 3–5 mm, flattened, with long or short greyish hairs, densely covered with long hairs when pods are young. Seeds ± 4 × 2 mm, rhomboid, flattened, brownish to blackish. <i> <i>Diagnostic Characters</i> — Chamaecrista capensis</i> shares long pedicels with <i>C. falcata,</i> but is distinguished from that species by its small, circular extrafloral nectaries that are sub-sessile or attached to a short stalk (Fig. 3B) (long stalked in <i>C. falcata</i>), linear to linear oblong leaflets (falcate in <i>C. falcata</i>), multiple and narrow leaflets (fewer and wider leaflets in <i>C. falcata</i>), and large flowers (10–17 × 5–15 mm in <i>C. capensis</i> vs. 7–9 × 8–10 mm in <i>C. falcata</i>). Two varieties are recognised:
description: Published as part of <i>Musandiwa, Liada, Magee, Anthony R. &amp; Boatwright, James S., 2022, A Taxonomic Revision of Chamaecrista (Caesalpinioideae, Cassieae, Cassiinae) in Southern Africa, pp. 992-1011 in Systematic Botany (Basel, Switzerland) (Basel, Switzerland) 47 (4)</i> on page 999, DOI: 10.1600/036364422x16674053033831, http://zenodo.org/record/8117056