Plants unarmed trees or shrubs. Leaves paripinnate, without glands on the petiole or rachis. Inflorescences many-flowered racemes; bracteoles 2, at base of pedicels. Flowers: sepals 5, overlapping; petals 5, usually yellow; stamens 10, filaments of lower 3 stamens with an S-bend near their base, many times longer than their small anthers which are longitudinally dehiscent, filaments of upper stamens more or less straight, sorter, their anthers dehiscing by basal pores. Pods cylindrical or elongate, usually indehiscent, with septa between the seeds. Seeds more or less compressed, without an areole.
Cassia is a pantropical genus with about 30 species. It is similar to Senna and Chamaechrista but in those genera all the filaments are straight.
The Flora of Somalia includes two species from Somalia, none from Somaliland. They can be distinguished as follows:
1. Racemes shorter than 19 cm, not pendulous; bracts persistent while the flowers are open ... Cassia abbreviata
1. Racemes 15-60 cm long, pendulous; bracts falling early ... Cassia fistula