Beach Sensitive Pea

Chamaecrista chamaecristoides (Collad.) Greene, Pittonia 4: 29 1899.
Cassia Chamaecrista Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8. no. 17. 1768. Not L. 1753. Cassia chamaecristoides Collad. Hist. Cass. 134. 1816. Cassia cinerea Cham. & Schlecht. Linnaea 5: 599. 1830. Chamaecrista cinerea Pollard; A. Heller, Cat. N. A. PI. ed. 2. 5. 1900.
A shrub, with slender prostrate branches 2 m. long or shorter, the twigs short-slrigose, canescent. Stipules lanceolate, acuminate, few-nerved, 5-7 mm. long; petiolar gland shortstalked, or subsessile, about 0.4 mm. in diameter; leaflets 8-20 pairs, linear, subfalcate, strigose or glabrous, acute, usually 4-7 mm. long, the upper ones shorter, the costa marginal; pedicels 6-12 mm. long; sepals lanceolate, sparingly appressed-pubescent, 10-13 mm. long, nerveless; petals unequal, 1.5-2.5 cm. long; legume linear, glabrate, 5-7 cm. long, 5-6 mm. wide, shorttipped, glabrate.
Type locality: Veracruz. Distribution: Veracruz and Tamaulipas.

Perennial, Shrubs, Herbs, Stems woody below, or from woody crown or caudex, Taproot present, Nodules present, Stems erect or ascending, Stems or branches arching, spreading or decumbent, Stems less than 1 m tall, Stems solid, Stems or young twigs sparsely to densely hairy, Leaves alternate, Leaves petiolate, Extrafloral nectary glands on petiole, Stipules green, triangulate to lanceolate or foliaceous, Stipules membranous or chartaceous, Stipules persistent, Stipules free, Leaves compound, Leaves even pinnate, Leaf or leaflet margins entire, Leaflets opposite, Leaflets 5-9, Leaflets 10-many, Leaves glabrous or nearly so, Flowers in axillary clusters or few-floweredracemes, 2-6 flowers, Inflorescences racemes, 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 legume, 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 ovoid to rounded in outline, Seed surface smooth, Seeds olive, brown, or black.