Senna barronfieldii

Location & distribution maps

Common name:         Southern Cassia

Conservation status: . . .

Etymology:   

• The genus name derives from the Arabic sanā, describing plants whose leaves and pods have cathartic and laxative properties

• The specific epithet (barronfieldii) honours Barron Field

Flowers

• The flowers are yellow and arranged in upper leaf axils in groups of three to five on a peduncle 30–90 mm long, each flower on a pedicel 10–20 mm long

• The petals are 12–20 mm long and there are ten fertile stamens, the anthers 4–6 mm long

• Flowering occurs in spring and summer, and the fruit is a more or less flattened pod 80–120 mm long

Fruit:                            

Leaves:         

•  Its leaves are pinnate, 80–150 mm long on a petiole 6–14 mm long, with eight to thirteen pairs of lance-shaped or elliptic leaflets

• These are 10–30 mm long and 5–10 mm wide

• There is are several stalked glands between each pair of leaflets

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• An erect shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 2.5 m.

Habitat:   

• Forest, the edges of rainforest and in subtropical rainforest 

Distribution:                  

• Endemic eastern Queensland and in eastern NSW as far south as Bega

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • This species was first formally described in 1826 by Luigi Aloysius Colla who gave it the name Cassia barronfieldii in his Hortus Ripulensis

  • In 2005, Helen Joan Hewson transferred the species to Senna as Senna barronfieldii in the journal Telopea

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senna_barronfieldii (2024)