Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Senna pendula

Senna hebecarpa

climbing cassia, valamuerto

American senna, northern wild senna
Habit Herbs, perennial, to 0.8–2.2 m.Leaves mesophyllous, 13–23 cm, finely hairy; stipules caducous; extrafloral nectary 1, base of or along petiole, sessile or shortly stipitate; leaflet pairs 6–10, blades elliptic, oblong-elliptic, or lanceolate-elliptic, 30–60 × 10–20 mm.
Racemes

25–37-flowered;

bracts caducous.
Pedicels

11–22 mm.
Flowers

monosymmetric;

calyx pinkish brown;

corolla yellow, longest petal 8–12 mm;

androecium heterantherous, stamens 7, staminodes 3;

anthers of middle stamens 2.6–3.5 mm, of abaxial stamens 4–5 mm, truncate, dehiscing by 2 pores, apical appendage 0;

gynoecium incurved, ovules 10–16;

ovary densely hairy;

style incurved, not dilated.
Legumes

ascending, flat, curved downward, 60–115 × 5.5–8 mm, corrugated over seeds, tardily dehiscent, each seed compartment nearly as wide as long.
Seeds

ochre, yellowish brown, or dark reddish brown, ovoid or rhomboid.

Senna pendula

Senna hebecarpa
Phenology Flowering mid summer–early fall.
Habitat Open woodlands, valley floors, creek banks, swamps, thickets, pastures.
Elevation 0–500 m. [0–1600 ft.]
Distribution
map from USDA
Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies [Introduced, Florida; introduced also in Africa (South Africa), Pacific Islands, Australia]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
map from FNA
CT; DE; IL; IN; KY; MA; MD; MI; MO; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; TN; VA; VT; WV; ON
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 18–20 (1 in the flora).

Senna pendula is often confused with close relative S. bicapsularis, which is absent from North America and has shorter pedicels, only to 5 mm (H. S. Irwin and R. C. Barneby 1982; B. Marazzi et al. 2006b).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Caesalpinioideae > Senna Fabaceae > subfam. Caesalpinioideae > Senna
Sibling taxa
S. alata, S. armata, S. artemisioides, S. atomaria, 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. pilosior, S. pumilio, S. ripleyana, S. roemeriana, S. surattensis, S. wislizeni
S. alata, S. armata, S. artemisioides, S. atomaria, S. bauhinioides, S. corymbosa, S. covesii, S. durangensis, 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
Subordinate taxa
S. pendula var. glabrata
Synonyms Cassia pendula, Chamaefistula pendula Cassia hebecarpa, C. hebecarpa var. longipila, S. hebecarpa var. longipila
Name authority (Humboldt & Bonpland ex Willdenow) H. S. Irwin & Barneby: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 35: 378. (1982) (Fernald) H. S. Irwin & Barneby: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 35: 446. (1982)
Source FNA vol. 11. Treatment authors: Brigitte Marazzi, Michael A. Vincent. FNA vol. 11. Treatment authors: Brigitte Marazzi, Michael A. Vincent.
Web links 
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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Boraginaceae and Polemoniaceae.)

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers