Senna didymobotrya | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Fabales |
Family: | Fabaceae |
Subfamily: | Caesalpinioideae |
Genus: | Senna |
Species: | S. didymobotrya |
Binomial name | |
Senna didymobotrya (Fresen.) Irwin & Barneby | |
Synonyms | |
Cassia didymobotrya |
Senna didymobotrya is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common names African senna, [1] popcorn senna, candelabra tree, and peanut butter cassia. It is native to Africa, where it can be found across the continent in several types of habitats.
It has been introduced to many other parts of the world for use as an ornamental plant, a cover crop, and a leguminous green manure. [2] In some places it is now naturalized in the wild, for example, in parts of Indonesia, Australia, Mexico, and the United States in California, Florida, and Hawaii.
African senna is a hairy, aromatic shrub usually growing up to about five meters tall but known to reach nine meters in optimal growing conditions. The leaves of the plant are up to half a meter long and are made up of many pairs of elongated oval leaflets each up to 6.5 centimeters long.
The African senna plant has a strong, distinct scent that has been variously described as being reminiscent of mice, wet dog, peanut butter, and burnt popcorn. [3]
The plant flowers plentifully in racemes of bright yellow flowers, with some flowers also occurring in leaf axils. The flower raceme has open flowers on the lower part with unopened buds at the tip covered in stark brownish green or black bracts. The flower has five concave petals each 1.5 to nearly 3 centimeters long. The flower has ten stamens, usually seven fertile ones and three sterile staminodes. Some of the stamens have large anthers measuring a centimeter long.
The fruits of the African senna plant are flat brown legume pods up to 12 centimeters long, each containing as many as 16 bean-like seeds that are themselves up to a centimeter long each.
The plant is poisonous. [4]
The African senna plant is one of 249 species in the genus Senna of the legume family. [5] According to Open Tree of Life, it's closest relative is Senna italica which is also native to Africa as well as parts of India. [6] [7]
In Kenya, some cultures, particularly Kalenjins, use the plant to prepare a special type of sour milk (mursik) which is used mainly during festivities. A sizeable tree is cut and its branches pruned. The bark is mostly removed, then dried. Once the bark is dry, and the specially made calabash gourd, or Sotet, has been cleaned and dried, the senna bark is put in a fire, and removed when charred. The process emits fragrant smoke. The charred bark is used to coat the inside of the gourd, which is subsequently used for the storage of fermented or fresh milk. [8]
Laburnum, sometimes called golden chain or golden rain, is a genus of two species of small trees in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are Laburnum anagyroides—common laburnum and Laburnum alpinum—alpine laburnum. They are native to the mountains of southern Europe from France to the Balkans.
Erythrina crista-galli, also known as the cockspur coral tree, ceibo or corticeira, is a species of flowering tree in the family Fabaceae, native to Argentina, Uruguay, southern Brazil and Paraguay. It is widely planted as a street or garden tree in other countries, notably in California. Its specific epithet crista-galli means "cock's comb" in Latin.
Senna tora is a plant species in the family Fabaceae and the subfamily Caesalpinioideae. Its name is derived from its Sinhala name tora (තෝර). It grows wild in most of the tropics and is considered a weed in many places. Its native range is in Central America. Its most common English name is sickle senna or sickle wild sensitive-plant. Other common names include sickle pod, tora, coffee pod and foetid cassia. It is often confused with Chinese senna or sickle pod, Senna obtusifolia.
Senna bicapsularis is a species of the legume genus Senna, native to northern South America, from Panama south to Venezuela and Colombia, and also the West Indies. Common names include rambling senna, winter cassia, Christmas bush, money bush, and yellow candlewood. In Florida, Senna pendula is usually cultivated as, and misapplied to, S. bicapsularis.
Senna auriculata is a leguminous tree in the subfamily Caesalpinioideae. It is commonly known by its local names matura tea tree, avaram or ranawara, or the English version avaram senna. It is the State flower of Indian state of Telangana. It occurs in the dry regions of India and Sri Lanka. It is common along the sea coast and the dry zone in Sri Lanka.
Hoita macrostachya is a species of legume known by the common names California hemp and large leather-root. It is native to California and Baja California where it can be found in moist areas of a number of habitat types. This is a hairy, glandular perennial herb producing a tall, branching stem approaching two meters in maximum height. The sparse, widely spaced leaves are each made up of three leaflets up to 10 centimeters long each attached to a long petiole. The leaflet blades are glandular. The plant produces many clublike raceme inflorescences on sturdy stalks from the stem. The inflorescence contains many purplish pealike flowers. The fruit is a hairy, veiny brown legume pod under a centimeter long containing a kidney-shaped seed.
Erythrina afra, the coast coral tree or African coral tree, is a tree native to southeastern Africa, which is often cultivated and has introduced populations in California and India. All the 17 species of coral tree in the genus Erythrina are collectively considered the official tree of Los Angeles, California in the United States.
Mursik is a traditional fermented milk variant of the Kalenjin people of Kenya. It can be made from cow or goat milk and is fermented in a specially made calabash gourd locally known as a sotet. The gourd is lined with soot from specific trees, such as the African senna, which add flavor to the fermented milk. It is normally consumed with ugali or on its own and is served at room temperature or chilled.
Hoita strobilina is a rare species of legume known by the common name Loma Prieta leatherroot, or Loma Prieta hoita. It is endemic to California, where it is known from occasional occurrences in the San Francisco Bay Area. It grows in chaparral and woodland habitats in the local mountains, often on serpentine soil. This is a perennial herb growing erect, approaching a meter in maximum height. The large leaves are divided into three leaflets each up to 8 centimeters long and lance-shaped to nearly round. The herbage is generally glandular and hairy. The inflorescence is a raceme up to 13 centimeters long containing many pealike flowers. Each flower is purple, sometimes with white parts, and one to two centimeters long. The fruit is a dark brown or black, hairy, veiny legume pod.
Psorothamnus polydenius is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common names Nevada dalea and Nevada indigobush. It is native to the deserts of the southwestern United States from the Mojave Desert in California to Utah.
Psorothamnus schottii is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Schott's dalea. It is native to the Sonoran Deserts of northern Mexico and adjacent sections of Arizona and the Colorado Desert in California.
Ribes montigenum is a species of currant known by the common names mountain gooseberry, alpine prickly currant, western prickly gooseberry, and gooseberry currant. It is native to western North America from Washington south to California and east as far as the Rocky Mountains, where it grows in high mountain habitat types in subalpine and alpine climates, such as forests and talus. It is a spreading shrub growing up to 1.5 meters tall, the branching stems covered in prickles and hairs and bearing 1 to 5 sharp spines at intervals.
Rupertia hallii is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Hall's California tea, or Hall's rupertia. It is endemic to California, where it is known only from a small section of the northern Sierra Nevada foothills on the border between Butte and Tehama Counties. It is a perennial herb approaching a meter in height with slender, leafy branches. The leaves are each made up of three lance-shaped or oval, pointed leaflets measuring up to 9 centimeters long. The inflorescence is a clustered raceme of several whitish or yellowish pealike flowers. Each flower has a tubular calyx of sepals and a corolla spreading to about a centimeter in width. The fruit is a hairy, gland-speckled legume around a centimeter long.
Senna armata is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common names spiny senna and desert senna. It is native to the desert regions around the intersection of Nevada, Arizona, eastern California and northern Baja California, where it grows in sandy and rocky habitat, such as arroyos. It is a shrub growing up to a meter tall, its grooved, branching stems often narrowing to thorns at their tips. The spiny branches are coated in tubular hairs which help protect it from hot desert air. The spine-tipped leaves are each made up of two to four pairs of small leaflets. The leaves are ephemeral, dropping soon after emerging, leaving the shrub naked most of the time. Flowers occur singly or in small clusters in leaf axils. They are fragrant and showy, with five petals in shades of yellow to salmon pink, each measuring roughly a centimeter long. The fruit is a legume pod up to 4 centimeters long.
Sphaerophysa salsula is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common names alkali swainsonpea, Austrian peaweed, and red bladder-vetch. It is native to Asia but it is known in many other parts of the world as an introduced species and often a noxious weed. It grows in cultivated land and disturbed habitat, easily tolerating alkaline substrates. It is commonly seen in areas where alfalfa is grown, because the seeds of the two species look similar and the weed seed is easily imported with the crop seed.
Symphoricarpos longiflorus is a species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family known by the common names desert snowberry and fragrant snowberry. It is native to the western United States from the Great Basin to western Texas, as well as northwestern Mexico.
Pycnanthus angolensis is a species of tree in the nutmeg family, Myristicaceae. It is native to Tropical Africa. Its English language common names include African nutmeg, false nutmeg, boxboard, and cardboard. In Africa it is widely known as ilomba.
Senna italica, the Port Royal senna, Italian senna, or Senegal senna is a legume tree in the genus Senna. It is recognized by many other common names based on the regions it grows in. In India, it is used to produce a powder for treating hair-related diseases which is known as “neutral henna”. Whereas, in some parts of the world, this species is cultivated for the leaves which yield the drug senna, known commonly as Senna glycoside, which in turn is the base for a laxative. Senegal senna is easily distinguishable through its many distinctive features. There are 3 subspecies of this plant based on the size of the inflorescence and the length of the petiole. The subspecies are italica, micrantha, and arachoides. In many regions, this plant is cultivated commercially and medicinally.
Aeschynomene americana is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae (legume) known by many common names, including shyleaf, forage aeschynomene, American joint vetch, thornless mimosa, bastard sensitive plant (Jamaica), pega pega, pega ropa, antejuela, ronte, cujicillo, and dormilonga. It is native to Central America, parts of South America, the West Indies, and Florida. It is now found in the US, in Australia and in South-East Asia.
Albizia procera, commonly known as white siris or karoi tree, is a species of large tree found natively in southeast Asia and India. It is most commonly found in open forests, but may also be found on the margins of rain forests and in monsoon and gallery forests. It is considered an invasive species in South Africa.