cassia

noun

• 1a tree, shrub, or herbaceous plant of the pea family, native to warm climates. Cassias yield a variety of products, including fodder, timber, and medicinal drugs (such as senna), and many are cultivated as ornamentals.

  • Genus Cassia, family Leguminosae: many species

• 2 (also cassia bark) [mass noun] the aromatic bark of an East Asian tree, yielding an inferior kind of cinnamon which is sometimes used to adulterate true cinnamon.

  • Cinnamomum aromaticum, family Lauraceae