Cassia fistula L.

കണിക്കൊന്ന

Family : Leguminosae (Caesalpinioideae)

Synonym : Bactyrilobium fistula Wild.

Common Names : Kannikonna, Golden shower, Indian laburnum

Flowering Period : February – September

Distribution : Indo-Malaysia

Habitat : Moist deciduous forests, widely planted as ornamental plant

Uses : The sweet blackish pulp of the seedpod is used as a mild laxative. Used for road-side plantations because of its excellent yellow shower flower. Wood is used for agricultural implements. The bark is used for tanning and dyeing. The pulp of the fruit furnishes an excellent and safe purgative, useful in chest and heart diseases.

Key Characters :

Cassia fistula is an deciduous trees with surface pale when young, dark grey when old, smooth, exfoliating in hard scales. Leaves paripinnate, alternate, leaflets opposite, ovate, margin entire, pulvinate. Flowers bisexual, yellow, in axillary drooping racemes. Calyx tube short, lobes 5, ovate. Petals 5, obovate. Stamens 10, all fertile; upper 3 short with erect filaments; anthers  basifixed; lower 3 large with curved filaments, anthers dorsifixed. Ovary half inferior, ovules many; stigma punctiform. Fruit a pod.