Florida Keys Sensitive Pea

Chamaecrista deeringiana Small & Pennell; Pennell, Bull
Torrey Club44: 345. 1917.
Perennial, with a long woody rhizome; stem slender, 3-6 dm. high, purple or purplish, glabrous, or puberulent above. Stipules lanceolate, long-acuminate, strongly few-veined, 7-10 mm. long; petiolar gland sessile, discoid, 1-1.5 mm. broad; leaflets 10-20 pairs, linear, 1-2 cm. long, 2-3 mm. wide, glabrous, subchartaceous, shining, acute, mucronate, closely pinnately many-veined with venation ascending, the costa excentric; pedicels 1-2 cm. long, filiform, lanceolate-bracteolate above; sepals lanceolate, acuminate, 10-12 mm. long, glabrous or puberulent; petals 14-18 mm. long; legume linear, 6-S.5 cm. long, about 5 mm. wide, sparingly puberulent or glabrous.
Type locality: Silver Palm, Dade County. Florida. Distribution; Southern Florida.

Perennial, Herbs, Stems woody below, or from woody crown or caudex, Plants with rhizome s or suckers, Nodules present, Stems erect or ascending, Stems less than 1 m tall, Stems solid, Stems or young twigs glabrous or sparsely glabrate, Stems or young twigs sparsely to densely hairy, Leaves alternate, Leaves petiolate, Extrafloral nectary glands on petiole, Stipules conspicuous, Stipules green, triangulate to lanceolate or foliaceous, Stipules persistent, Stipules free, Leaves compound, Leaves even pinnate, Leaf or leaflet margins entire, Leaflets opposite, Leaflets 10-many, Leaves glabrous or nearly so, Flowers in axillary clusters or few-floweredracemes, 2-6 flowers, Inflorescence axillary, Bracts very small, absent or caducous, Bracteoles present, Flowers actinomorphic or somewhat irregular, Calyx 5-lobed, Calyx hairy, Petals separate, Petals clawed, Petals orange or yellow, Stamens 9-10, Stamens heteromorphic, graded in size, Stamens completely free, separate, Filaments glabrous, Anthers opening by basal or terminal pores or slits, Style terete, Fruit a leg ume, Fruit unilocular, Fruit freely dehiscent, Fruit elongate, straight, Fruit oblong or ellipsoidal, Fruit exserted from calyx, Fruit internally septate between the seeds, Fruit compressed between seeds, Fruit explosively or elastically dehiscent, Valves twisting or coiling after dehiscence, Fruit glabrous or glabrate, Fruit hairy, Fruit 3-10 seeded, Seeds subquadrate, Seed surface smooth, Seeds olive, brown, or black.