腊肠树 Cassia fistula
- Scientific Name: Cassia fistula L.
- Ref: Sp. Pl.: 377. 1753
- Synonyms: Bactyrilobium fistula (L.) Willd.; Cassia bonplandiana DC.; C. fistuloides Collad.; C. rhombifolia Roxb.; Cathartocarpus excelsus G.Don; C. fistula (L.) Pers.; C. fistuloides (Collad.) G.Don; C. rhombifolius (Roxb.) G.Don
- English Common Name: golden rain tree, golden shower, canafistula
- Chinese Common Name: 腊肠树 làcháng∙shù, 牛角树 niújiǎo∙shù, 阿勃勒 ābólè, 波斯皂荚 Bōsī zàojiá
- Japanese Common Name: ナンバンサイカチ [南蛮皀莢] nanbansaikachi
- Family: Fabaceae
- Genus: Cassia
- Distribution: Cultivated in S and SW China [native to India; cultivated throughout the tropics].
- Photo: 06/18/2009, Xiamen, Fujian
Trees, deciduous, to 15 m tall. Leaves 30-40 cm, with 3 or 4 pairs of leaflets; leaflets adaxially shiny, broadly ovate or ovate-oblong, 8-13 × 4-8 cm, leathery, both surfaces puberulent when young, glabrous when mature, base broadly cuneate, apex acute. Racemes axillary, 20-40(-60) cm, lax, pendent, many flowered; flowers 3.5-4 cm in diam. Pedicels 3-5 cm, slender. Sepals narrowly ovate, 1-1.5 cm, reflexed at anthesis. Petals golden yellow, broadly ovate, subequal, 2.5-3.5 cm, shortly clawed. Stamens 10, 3 long with curved filaments 3-4 cm, anthers ca. 5 mm, exceeding petals, 4 short with straight filaments 6-10 mm, reduced stamens with minute anthers. Ovary stalked, strigulose; stigma small. Legume pendulous, blackish brown, terete, sausage-shaped, indehiscent, 30-60 cm, 2-2.5 cm in diam. Seeds numerous, separated by papery septa, glossy brown, elliptic, flattened. 2n = 28. (Flora of China)