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Java Cassia
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Java Cassia
D Native Photo: Thingnam Girija
Common name: Java Cassia, Apple blossom cassia, Nodding cassia, Pink cassia, Pink shower • Manipuri: জাৱা ৰানী Java rani • Mizo: Makpa-zangkang
Botanical name: Cassia javanica subsp. agnes    Family: Caesalpiniaceae (Gulmohar family)
Synonyms: Cassia javanica subsp. nodosa, Cassia nodosa, Cassia indochinensis

When in bloom, Java cassia can be a stunning sight, with the tree covered with crimson-pink flowers. It is a deciduous. tree with branchlets drooping, slender, thinly greyish. Flowers are borne in lat­eral racemes on short side branches. This character distinguishes it easily from Agnes Cassia, which has flowers borne in panicles, at ends of young leafy shoots. inflorescence axis is slender. Sepals are green, ovate. Petals are pinkish, ovate, 2.5-3 x 1-1.5 cm. Stamens are 10, among them 3 lower ante­sepalous with longer filaments than other 7. Ovary is linear, whitish velvet-hairy. Leaves are compound, 15-30 cm; leaflets 5-12 pairs, 2-5 × 1.2-2 cm, somewhat leathery, below hairy, above sparsely finely velvet-hairy, base slightly asymmetric, tip pointed or blunt. Pod is blackish brown, cylindrical, 30-45 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide, with prominent annular nodes. Java Cassia is native to Indonesia (Java), Malaysia, Thailand, widely cultivated in the tropical world.

Identification credit: Tabish Photographed in Imphal, Manipur.

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