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Fabaceae
Wild Senna
Senna hebecarpa
Quiet generosity and woven kinship.
- Family
- Fabaceae
- Genus
- Senna
- Native to
- eastern North America
- Bloom season
- Mid Summer
- Type
- herbaceous perennial
- Height
- 1.2–1.8 m
- Sunlight
- full sun to part shade
- Soil
- moist, fertile
- Water
- medium
- Hardiness
- 4–8
- Lifespan
- long-lived perennial
Did you know
- Its yellow flowers feed many native bees, but they offer pollen only — no nectar reward.
- Specialist 'extra-floral nectaries' on the leaf stalks supply ants, which in turn defend the plant from caterpillars.
- Hosts the cloudless sulphur butterfly — its caterpillars are bright yellow to match the flowers.
- The seedpods turn black and persist through winter, rattling like maracas in the cold wind.
- Closely related Senna species supply commercial senna laxative, though wild senna is much less potent.
Color meanings
Yellow
open-handed sunlight