899
Senna
tora (L.)Roxb.
Synonym
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:
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Cassia borneensis
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Family
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Fabaceae
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Local name
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Malayalam-Thakara
English-Sickle Senna
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Flowering and fruiting
period
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August-December
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Distribution
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Native of South America
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Distribution in Kerala
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All Districts
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Habitat
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Moist deciduous forests, also in the plains
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:
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Exotic
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Uses
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It is used as a natural pesticide in organic farms,
and as a powder commonly used in the pet food industry
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Key botanical
characters :
Annual,
glabrous subshrubs up to 1 m tall. Leaves bearing a slender cylindric gland
on the rachis between the leaflets of the lower 2 pairs; leaflets 2-4 pairs,
obovate-oblong, apex obtuse, base somewhat oblique, pubescent below; stipules
linear. Flowers in few-flowered axillary racemes; pedicels 4-6 mm long;
bracteoles 2,. Sepals 5, obovate-obtuse. Petals 5, yellow, obovate-obtuse.
Stamens 10, unequal, only 7 fertile, 3 large, 4 medium, 3 staminodal. Pods
linear, subtetragonous, septate between seeds, indehiscent; seeds 20-30,
oblong, compressed, chestnut-brown.
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