Senna covesii A. Gray
Coues’ Cassia, Desert senna (syn. Cassia covesii)
Family:
Fabaceae
Habit:
Subshrub, unarmed, leafy and densely white-hairy; stems 3 to 6
dm.
Distribution:
Dry, sandy desert washes and slopes. Rare in
California.
Found in the Sonora Desert, Arizona, Nevada, and Baja
California.
Seed unit:
Free seed.
Seed:
Several in flat pods. Seeds brown,
2 to 4 mm., shiny, flattened, irregularly shaped.
Embryo:
Foliar embryo, bent or folded, with hard seed coat.
Purity
instructions:
Pure seed definition:
AOSA:
PSU #2 – Seed with at least a portion of the seed coat
attached. Broken seed larger than one-half the original size
with at least a portion of the seed coat attached.
Lab notes:
Samples of this species often contain large percentages of hard
seeds; viability of hard seeds can be determined by TZ, or hard
seeds can be clipped and chilled with GA3.
Average pure
seed units per gram:
44 seeds per gram (based on AOSA pure seed units only from 2
samples received for testing from 1998 to 1999).
Range of
percent pure seed:
99%
Range of
percent inert:
1%
Description
of inert:
Plant material, broken seed.
Planting
instructions:
400 seeds, T, 21 days @ 20°C; for fresh and dormant seed,
prechill recommended.
References:
(link
to main reference page)
Hickman, J.C., Ed. 1993. p. 644.
Ransom Seed Laboratory
