Senna covesii

Last updated

Senna covesii
Desert-senna.jpg
Desert Senna plant in the Mojave Desert portion of Joshua Tree National Park, California
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Senna
Species:
S. covesii
Binomial name
Senna covesii
Synonyms

Cassia covesiiA.Gray
Earleocassia covesii(A.Gray) Britton & Rose

Desert Senna flower, Water Ranch Riparian Preserve, Gilbert, Arizona. Desertsenna.JPG
Desert Senna flower, Water Ranch Riparian Preserve, Gilbert, Arizona.

Senna covesii (desert senna, Coues' senna, [1] rattleweed, rattlebox, dais, or cove senna) is a perennial subshrub in the family Fabaceae, native to the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert in southeastern California, southern Nevada, and Arizona in the United States, and northern Baja California in Mexico. It is found on desert plains and in sandy washes between 500 and 600 m above sea level, and is very common in Joshua Tree National Park. The specific epithet honors ornithologist Elliott Coues.

It grows to 30–60 cm tall, and is leafless most of the year. The leaves are pinnate, 3–7 cm long, with two or three pairs of leaflets (no terminal leaflet); the leaflets are elliptical, 1.0-2.5 cm long. The flowers are yellow in color, with five rounded petals about 12 mm long.

This shrub is often planted by landscapers and as part of roadside wildflower programs. Flowers are visited by carpenter bees and bumblebees. Sulphur butterflies use the plant as a larval food source. [2]

Related Research Articles

<i>Ipomopsis arizonica</i> species of plant

Ipomopsis arizonica is a flowering plant in the family Polemoniaceae, native to the mountains of the Mojave Desert sky islands from southeastern California east through southern Nevada to northern Arizona, growing at 1500–3100 meters in elevation. It is found in rocky places in the desert, as well as washes.

<i>Erigeron concinnus</i> species of plant

Erigeron concinnus is a perennial flowering plant in the daisy family.

<i>Lupinus arizonicus</i> species of plant

Lupinus arizonicus is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, where it can be found growing in open places and sandy washes below 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) elevation. It is common around Joshua Tree National Park and Death Valley National Park in California.

<i>Astragalus newberryi</i> species of plant

Astragalus newberryi, is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to the western United States from Idaho to New Mexico and California. A variety is found in the Death Valley area and the eastern Mojave Desert in California and Nevada. It grows in rocky and gravelly areas between 1,300–2,350 metres (4,270–7,710 ft) elevation.

<i>Chaenactis xantiana</i> species of plant

Chaenactis xantiana, the Mojave pincushion or Xantus pincushion, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to the western United States, from southeastern Oregon, Nevada, southern and eastern California and northwestern Arizona. It is very common in the Antelope Valley in the Mojave Desert, and grows in sandy soils.

<i>Monoptilon bellioides</i> species of plant

Monoptilon bellioides, the desert star, also called Mojave desertstar, is a desert flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.

<i>Delphinium parishii</i> Species of plant

Delphinium parishii, the desert larkspur, is a flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae native to the Mojave Desert, in the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. In Southern California it is also found in the Tehachapi Mountains, Transverse Ranges, and eastern Sierra Nevada.

<i>Adenophyllum cooperi</i> species of plant

Adenophyllum cooperi, is a North American species of perennial flowering plants in the sunflower family. It is, native to the Mojave Desert in the southwestern United States, in the States of California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah.

<i>Camissonia campestris</i> species of plant

Camissonia campestris, is a flowering plant in the family Onagraceae, native to the Mojave Desert of the United States. It grows mostly on open, sandy flats, occurring from sea level to 2,000 m in the western and central part of the desert.

<i>Calycoseris parryi</i> species of plant

Calycoseris parryi is a spring wildflower found in the Mojave Desert, the Sonoran Desert, and surrounding regions of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is found in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Baja California.

<i>Langloisia</i> species of plant

Langloisia setosissima, the bristly langloisia, bristly-calico, Great Basin langloisia or lilac sunbonnets, is a flowering plant, the sole species in the genus Langloisia in the family Polemoniaceae. It is native to the western United States, where it is found in desert washes and on rocky slopes and plains from eastern Oregon and Idaho south to eastern California and Arizona.

<i>Vachellia constricta</i> species of plant

Vachellia constricta, also known commonly as the whitethorn acacia, is a shrub native to Mexico and the Southwestern United States, with a disjunct eastern population in Virginia and Maryland.

Senna wislizeni is commonly called Wislizenus' senna or shrubby senna. Formerly in the "wastebin taxon" Cassia sensu lato, it is now placed in the genus Senna or sometimes separated in Palmerocassia together with Senna unijuga.

<i>Baccharis salicifolia</i> species of plant

Baccharis salicifolia is a blooming shrub native to the sage scrub community and desert southwest of the United States and northern Mexico, as well as parts of South America. Its usual common name is mule fat; it is also called seepwillow or water-wally. This is a large bush with sticky foliage which bears plentiful small, fuzzy, pink or red-tinged white flowers which are highly attractive to butterflies. The long pointed leaves may be toothed and contain three lengthwise veins. It is most common near water sources.

<i>Crossosoma bigelovii</i> species of plant

Crossosoma bigelovii, known by the common name ragged rockflower, is one of only a few species in the flowering plant family Crossosomataceae.

<i>Phoradendron californicum</i> species of plant

Phoradendron californicum, the desert mistletoe or mesquite mistletoe, is a hemiparasitic plant native to southern California, Nevada, Arizona, Sonora, Sinaloa and Baja California. It can be found in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts at elevations of up to 1400 m.

<i>Buddleja marrubiifolia</i> species of plant

Buddleja marrubiifolia, commonly known as the woolly butterflybush, is a perennial shrub which is endemic to the Chihuahuan Desert from southern Texas to San Luis Potosí in Mexico, where it grows on limestone and gypsum soils in canyons and arroyos at elevations of 600 to 2,250 m elevation. The species was first named and described by George Bentham in 1846.

<i>Ottleya rigida</i> species of plant

Ottleya rigida, synonyms Lotus rigidus and Acmispon rigidus, is a flowering plant in the pea family (Fabaceae), native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is known as shrubby deervetch or desert rock-pea. It is found in the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert.

Aristolochia watsonii is a perennial plant in the birthwort family (Aristolochiaceae), found growing among plants of the Arizona Uplands in the Sonoran Desert. The plant is inconspicuous, small and hard to spot, but can be found by following the pipevine swallowtail which lays eggs on it.

References

  1. Formerly "Coues' cassia". Desert cassia, though, is a different species, Cassia eremophila Vogel.
  2. Soule, J.A. 2012. Butterfly Gardening in Southern Arizona. Tierra del Soule Press, Tucson, AZ