Flora of North America species comparison

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Senna atomaria

flor de San Jose, flor de san josé, palo zorillo
Habit Shrubs or trees, to 20 m. Leaves mesophyllous to slightly sclerophyllous, 8.5–28.5 cm, hairy, sometimes densely; stipules caducous; extrafloral nectaries 0; leaflet pairs 2–5, blades bicolored, usually obovate to elliptic, sometimes ovate, 20–130 × 10–60 mm.
Racemes

5–55-flowered, not spikelike;

bracts early caducous, to 5 mm.
Pedicels

13–28 mm.
Flowers

asymmetric, enantiostylous;

calyx greenish to yellow;

corolla yellow-orange, slightly dark-veined, longest petal 12–23 mm, highly asymmetric, 1 or both lower petals highly modified, strongly concave and folded over stamens (flag-shaped);

androecium slightly heterantherous, stamens 7 (similar in shape and size, abaxial ones slightly longer), staminodes 3;

anthers 2.8–5 mm, dehiscing by 2 short slits, apical appendage 0;

gynoecium incurved, ovules 46–70;

ovary glabrate, sometimes becoming hairy after fertilization;

style stout.
Legumes

pendulous, flat, straight, 220–370 × 80–140 mm, woody, indehiscent or splitting transversely into woody segments.
Seeds

reddish brown, obovoid to oblong-obovoid.

Senna atomaria
Phenology Flowering late winter–late spring.
Habitat Disturbed habitats.
Elevation 0–20 m. (0–100 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; Mexico (Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, México, Michoacán, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Yucatán); Central America (including Caribbean Islands); South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela) [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

As with other trees from deciduous and semi-deciduous vegetation, Senna atomaria is covered with flowers before developing the foliage (H. S. Irwin and R. C. Barneby 1982). In the flora area, it occurs naturalized only very locally in Collier County (R. P. Wunderlin et al., http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Caesalpinioideae (excluding Mimosoid clade) > Senna
Sibling taxa
S. alata, S. armata, S. artemisioides, S. bauhinioides, S. corymbosa, S. covesii, S. durangensis, S. hebecarpa, S. hirsuta, S. ligustrina, S. lindheimeriana, S. marilandica, S. mexicana, S. multiglandulosa, S. obtusifolia, S. occidentalis, S. orcuttii, S. pendula, S. pilosior, S. pumilio, S. ripleyana, S. roemeriana, S. surattensis, S. wislizeni
Synonyms Cassia atomaria, C. emarginata
Name authority (Linnaeus) H. S. Irwin & Barneby: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 35: 588. (1982)
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Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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