Cassia fistula
Family: FABACEAE/LEGUMINOSAE (Subfam.: Caesalpinioideae)
Malayalam Name(s): Kanikonna, Karnikaram, Konna, Kritamalam, Swarnaviram
English name(s): Indian laburnum, Fistula, Goldem shower, Purging cassia, Purging fistula
Habit: Tree
Flowering & Fruiting: February-September
Medicinal: Yes
Habitat: Moist deciduous forests, widely planted as ornamental plant
Description: Deciduous trees, to18 m high, bark 8-10 mm, thick, surface pale when young, dark grey when old, smooth, exfoliating in hard scales. Leaves paripinnate, alternate, leaflets 6-16, opposite, 5-18.5 x 3-6.5 cm, ovate, ovate-lanceolate or oblong-ovate, apex acuminate, base obtuse, round or acute, margin entire, glabrous above, glaucous and puberulent beneath, coriaceous; stipules small, free, lateral, cauducous; rachis 14.5-36 cm, slender, pulvinate, glabrous; petiolule 4-7 mm long, slender, grooved above; lateral nerves 9-25, pinnate, slender, prominent, secondary laterals prominent; intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers bisexual, 3.7-5 cm across, yellow, in axillary drooping racemes; pedicels 3-7 cm. Calyx tube short, lobes 5, 1 x 0.6 cm, ovate, apex obtuse, reflexed. Petals 5, 2.5 x 1.5 cm, obovate, subequal, clawed. Stamens 10, all fertile; upper 3 short with erect filaments to 7.5 mm; anthers 3 mm, basifixed; lower 3 large with curved filaments, to 3 cm; anthers 5 mm, dorsifixed; medium 4 with erect filaments to 1 cm; anthers versatile with curved beak to 6.5 mm; anthers dehiscing by apical pores. Ovary half inferior, appressed-pubescent; ovules many; style to 5 mm; stigma punctiform. Fruit a pod 30-60 x 1.2-1.6 cm, cylindrical, black, shortly stipitate, indehiscent, woody, transversely septate; seeds 25-100, 6-8 mm broad, ovoid, pale brown, immersed in pulp.