American Senna - Senna hebecarpa

 Category: Perennial

Common Name: American Senna 

Scientific Name: Senna hebecarpa

Sun Conditions: Full Sun

Soil Conditions: Medium Moist to Wet

Height Range: 3-6 ft

Width Range: 2-4 ft

Growth Habit: Upright

Growth Rate: Medium

Bloom Color: Yellow

Bloom Time: Summer (July-August)

Seed/Fruit Production: Yes

Foliage Color: Green

Hardiness Zones: 3 to 8

Evergreen: No (foliage yellows in fall, black seed pods persist into winter)

Deer Resistant: Yes (foliage is somewhat toxic and purgative, so deer and other mammals generally avoid it)

Forage: Rated only "fair" livestock forage and avoided by deer because of the purgative effect; seeds eaten by Bobwhite quail and wild turkey

Poisonous: Mild — foliage (and especially seeds/pods) is somewhat toxic and cathartic (a purgative); keep livestock and pets from eating it in quantity

Wildlife Value Highlights: Meadows, prairies, pollinator and native gardens, back of borders, informal hedge; sturdy central stem rarely flops; forms colonies by rhizomes

Ecological/Landscape Use: Major magnet for bumblebees and halictid bees (extrafloral nectaries also feed ants and flies); larval host for several sulphur butterflies; pods eaten by Bobwhite and wild turkey; nitrogen-fixing legume

Lepidoptera Supported by Family/Group: Host for Cloudless Sulphur, Orange-barred Sulphur, Sleepy Orange and Silver-spotted Skipper, plus Black Witch and Common Tan Wave moths

Lepidoptera Supported by Species: Phoebis sennae, Phoebis philea, Abaeis nicippe, Epargyreus clarus, Ascalapha odorata, Iridopsis defectaria

For More Info: https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=SEHE3