PlantFiles: Wild Cassia, Wild Senna
Senna hebecarpa

I bought this plant from a local nursery and planted it on a retaining wall terrace where it gets full sun, which I assumed would be ideal since it is a prairie species. It is, but this summer I discovered a seedling that planted itself in a shady location where I had placed some of the abundant seed capsules last fall when I cut the plant back late in the season. I have also found tiny seedlings growing near my garden shed where there is essentially no sun. It's a native species that appears very adaptable. I'll see how the plants in the shady sites do next year and let you know.

What a great plant to add to a garden! The shape of the leaves are lovely, non-invasive and a true native. I planted 2 side by side for the Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly (one of my favorites!)...

When I noticed over the summer of 2008 that there were a dozen seedlings coming up through the grassy weeds within 20' of one that I had collected some years ago, on a south-facing clay loam hillside in one of my gardens, I got a bit antsy that it might be an invasive alien. It turns out that this is a native plant. Prairie Nursery suggests that it does well in clayey soils. It can be a chore to clean up the dead stems.

I like the texture of the pinnate leaves; the flowers are showy enough, maybe not outstanding. Easy to grow in fairly sunny spot, tho withstands some shade and fairly drought tolerant. It's a nitrogen-fixing legume, so seed is easily harvested from pods after they mature and dry on the plant in late summer/fall.