Senna artemisioides is an Australian species, naturalized in and around various towns in southern Arizona and southern California. Plants are shrubs, up to 6 feet tall, profusely branched and sparsely hairy. Leaves, attached by stalks of around half an inch, are divided into three to eight pairs of well-separated linear leaflets, very narrow, with prominent midveins. The lower few leaflet pairs have one or more yellowish glands below the attachment point.
Flowers are formed of five hairy, greenish-yellow sepals, five much larger hairless, orange-yellow petals, and ten stamens, of unequal lengths, with thick yellowish filaments and relatively large, elongated brownish anthers. Fruits are flat green pods, up to 3 inches long.
Common names:
Silver senna, wormwood senna
Family:
Scientific name:
Senna artemisioides
Main flower color:
Range:
South California, south and central Arizona (non-native)
Height:
Up to 6 feet
Habitat:
Roadsides, disturbed ground, washes, rocky slopes
Leaves:
Pinnate, with 6 to 16 narrow, linear, grey-green leaflets, up to 1 inch long and less than 0.1 inches wide
Season:
January to May
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