Caesalpinia L.

Shrubs, occasionally small trees, or sprawling vines usually armed with recurved internodal or nodal prickles. Leaves 2-paripinnate, occasionally imparipinnate, petioled; leafstalk eglandular, glabrous or pubescent; pinnae and leaflets several to numerous; stipules fleeting or persistent and evident. Inflorescence(s) simple or compound racemes, intercalary or terminal. Flowers perfect or unisexual; calyx united with sepals, lobes much longer than tube, imbricate; corolla generally yellow to orange, with red spotted petals, the upper one usually smallest and distinctly clawed; androecium of 10 stamens, filaments yellow or red, subequal to the petals, or much exerted. Legume dehiscent or indehiscent, variously suborbicular-ovate, lunate or oblong, laterally compressed; valves ligneous to thick papery. Seeds 1 to several. Pantropical; about 100 species.

(ISE)

1. Flowers orange-yellow or red-yellow, rarely yellow..................................................C. pulcherrima

1. Flowers yellow

     2. Leaflets to 1" long................................................................................................... C. ferrea

     2. Leaflets greater than 1" long

          3. Exfoliating bark, 5 pinnae, 4 to 8 pairs of leaflets..............................................C. granadillo

          3. Pinnae 3-7, with 3 to 5 pairs of leaflets....................................................................C. mexicana

(WU1, ISE, PBCC)

Other plants in the manual include:

Cassia leptophylla