Author: Linnaeus f.
Morphological description
Semideciduous tree up to 20(-30) m high; young branches and inflorescence covered with whitish rusty lanate indumentum. Stipules minute, triangular, subulate, early caducous.
Leaves paripinnate, with 10-20 pairs of leaflets; petiole 2-3 cm, lanate; rachis 10-25 cm; extrafloral nectaries absent. Leaflets subcoriaceous, subsessile, elliptic-oblong, 3-5 by 1-2 cm, rounded at both ends.
Inflorescenses: Racemes lateral, 10-20 cm long, 20-40-flowered; bracts ovate-elliptic, acuminate, 2-5 mm, caducous; bracteoles similar, but smaller; pedicels 1-2 cm (grandis Cassia fl/infl FT26 ).
Flowers:. (grandis Cassia fl 256055 )Sepals ovate-obtuse, 5-8 mm, pubescent on both surfaces, finally reflexed. Petals at first red, fading to pink and finally orange, the median one red with a yellow patch, 10-15 mm, shortly clawed. Stamens 10 with hirsute anthers: 3 long with sigmoidally curved filaments up to 30 mm and anthers 2-3 mm, opening by short apical and basal slits; 5 with straight filaments, 7-9 mm and anthers 1-1.5 mm; 2 reduced with filaments c. 2 mm. Ovary tomentose, style short, stigma inconspicuous.
Pods pendulous, cylindric-compressed, 20-40(-6) by 3-5 cm, keeled dorsally, woody, rugose, glabrous, blackish (grandis Cassia pod 386521).
Seeds 20-40, ellipsoid, flattened, surrounded by sweetish pulp, 15-20 mm.
Distribution
Tropical America; introduced as ornamental all over the tropics. Malesia: several collections seen from the Malay Peninsula, Java and New Guinea.
Habitat & Ecology
Reported as deciduous in the northern Malay Peninsula and in Java. Flowering from August to November (cf. de Wit 1956: 207).
Uses
The pulp is used like that of Cassia fistula but more powerful. The wood is reported to be strong and handsome and useful for many purposes.