Senna siamea

Botanical Name: Senna siamea (Lam.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby

Family: Fabaceae

Common Name: Pheasantwood

English Name: Ironwood tree, Siamese senna

Description: It is a medium-size tree, to 12m high, evergreen tree with a crown that is usually dense and rounded when young, later becoming irregular and spreading with drooping branches. It grows up to 18 metres tall, with a short, straight bole that is up to 30cm in diameter. Young parts puberulent. Leaves paripinnate, alternate, stipules small,subulate, cauducous, rachis 30-35cm long, slender, pubescent, grooved above, pulvinate, leaflets 18-30, opposite, estipellate, petiolule 3-4mm, slender, pubescent, lamina 4-7 x 1.8-2.8cm, oblong elliptic-oblong or ovate-oblong, base obtuse or round, apex obtuse, mucronate or retuse, margin entire, glabrous above, glabrous or minutely pubescent and glaucous beneath, lateral nerves 6-10 pairs, pinnate, faint, intercostae reticulate, obscure.  Flowers 2.5-3.5cm long, bisexual, yellow, in terminal or axillary corymbose recemose panicles, bracts linear, curved, sepals 5,5-7mm long, suborbicular, subequal, greenish-yellow, puberulent,petals 5, 1.5xo.8cm, ovate-elliptic, subequal, clawed, stamens 10,upper 3 staminodes small, antheriferous ones 7, lower2 large, curved, one medium, ovary half inferior, sessile, pubescent, deeply grooved, ovules many.  Fruita pod, 20-25x1-1.5cm long stipitate, strap-shaped, compressed woody with thick sutures, seeds 20-30, longitudinal.

Flowering & Fruiting: October-March

Distribution: Native of Southeast Asia - Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam; now widely cultivated

IUCN : Decreasing: Least Concern. Senna siamea (Pheasantwood) (iucnredlist.org)

District: All District of Tamil Nadu

Uses: The young fruits and leaves are eaten as a vegetable. During preparation the cooking liquid is replaced 3 times to remove toxins. The flowers and young fruits are used in curries. In traditional medicine, the fruit is used to charm away intestinal worms and to prevent convulsions in children. The heartwood is said to be a laxative, and a decoction is used against scabies.

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