Siamese Cassia

Senna siamea (syn.Cassia siamea)

Hindi: Cassod

A fast-growing evergreen midsized tree with feather compound leaves of 10-14 pairs (without terminal leaflet) with yellow flowers in clusters (not that showy) during a major part of year (June to January)

Bark: Smooth greyish with slight vertical fissures.

Leaf: 12’’ long, 10-14 pair of leaflets each 2-3’’, longish oval, tip blunt   

Flower: Yellow, in cluster, each having 5 same sized concave petals & 10 stamens of different size

Fruit: 12’’ long flat pod, initially green, purplish, or brown when mature

Season: New leaves in Feb-Mar, June to Jan flowering, peak around Oct

Range/habitat: Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, grows is relatively dry forests. Some sources (others disagree) also consider Tamil Nādu and Sri Lanka in its natural distribution

Trivia and notes:

a) In Myanmar and Thailand young leaves are used as leafy vegetables (it seems this leaf is toxic to human by boiling and draining off the water makes it non-toxic)

b) In 19th Century Stefano Lanka this tree’s wood used to be used as fuel of steam engines

Where to find: Quite a few in Rabindra sarovar. One full grown tree near Nazrul Mancha side, which is wrongly labelled as white siris GPS: 22.51311, 88.36228