Wednesday's Wildflower: Bahama Senna

Senna mexicana var. chapmanii
Submitted by Beryn Harty, Miami-Dade Chapter, resident of the lower Florida Keys
Photo by Beryn Harty in a refuge area of Lower Florida Keys

Bahama Senna is a small shrub, or sprawling groundcover with showy yellow flowers that bloom year-round in its natural, southern range. The bright yellow, five petal flowers, about the size of a US quarter, bloom the heaviest in the fall and winter. 
Photo by Beryn Harty in a refuge area of Lower Florida Keys

 Bahama Senna is the host plant for Cloudless Sulphur, Orange Barred Sulphur, and Sleepy Orange Butterflies. Its preferred habitat is pine rocklands and rockland hammock edges in moist, well-drained limestone soils, typically in full sun to light shade.   

 While listed as threatened in the state of Florida, it is easy to find and grow, stocked by many native nurseries, and can be grown from seed.  




Family Name: Fabaceae
Genus/Species: Senna mexicana var. chapmanii
Common Name(s): Bahama Senna, Chapman's wild sensitive plant, Mexican Senna. 
Native Range: South Florida and the West Indies (Cuba, Bahamas)
Seed pod,
photo by Beryn Harty

Hardiness zone: 11
Soil Type: Moist, well-drained limestone soils
Preferred Sun: full sun to light shade
Height at maturity: 2-4 feet
Propagation: (seed, seedling) Can be grown from seed

Other Links: 
FNPS: Bahama Senna
IRC Natives For Your Neighborhood: Bahama Senna
USF Plant Atlas: Senna mexicana var. chapmanii


Beryn Harty is a member of the Miami-Dade Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society and lives in the lower Florida Keys.

Comments

Steven Schuemann said…
Can the Bahama senna be trimmed to form a hedge?
December 31, 2020 at 12:26 PM
Unknown said…
Will my Bahamian Senna grow good with just morning sun till noon...after noon it's in shade I live in mid west Florida
January 26, 2021 at 2:46 PM
Unknown said…
Where can I find this tree in the Bahamas
September 8, 2021 at 3:29 PM
Mark Sammartino said…
How quickly does Bahama Senna grow to full height?
April 3, 2022 at 7:00 AM
Valerie Anderson said…
Steven, you can trim it but it doesn't really fill out like a hedge. Mark, once the roots get established after year one it pretty much gets to full height in the next year as long as its growing conditions are good. Unknown, yes, it doesn't need full sun and prefers a little shade in my experience unless the site is very wet.
April 4, 2022 at 8:54 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Florida Native Azaleas

Image
Piedmont Azalea, Rhododendron canescens. Photo by Lilly Anderson-Messec By Lilly Anderson-Messec While growing up in North Florida, I began to recognize the arrival of spring by the boisterous show of white, pink, and fuchsia blooms of azalea shrubs. The house I grew up in had large, mature azalea hedges with a variety of different colors and forms. Every spring, my mom would bring in vases full of them and my dad loved to point out the showy shrubs as we drove through town. I suppose I assumed these plants were native, but most likely I never gave it a thought. I didn’t differentiate a native plant from a non-native one because I didn’t yet know the importance of native plants as the basis of our functioning ecosystems. I was so surprised when I learned the azaleas I was so familiar with (Rhododendron indicum) are actually transplants from Asia! They are favored by the horticultural industry for their fast, vigorous, and dense growth of evergreen leaves and large, showy blooms. Curio...
Read more

Wednesday's Wildflower:Spanish Needle

Image
Spanish Needle, Bidens Alba Submitted by Donna Bollenbach, Suncoast Chapter Biden's alba , all photos by Donna Bollenbach Nothing attracts more butterflies and bees than a simple white flower called Bidens alba . Also called Romerillo, Beggar’s Tick, Spanish Needle or Monkey’s Lice, this Florida native wildflower is the third most reliable source of nectar for pollinators in our state. There would be many starving bees and butterflies if not for the Bidens family of flowers. More so, Bidens alba and its sister plant, Bidens pilosa , are both edible and have medicinal value. Yet, many gardeners have a love/hate relationship the plant, and some even consider it a pesky weed. Why?
Read more

Paradise Tree: Beautiful and Useful

Image
"The native Paradise tree is more useful than Google, and easy to grow." And how could any blogger resist leading off with this intriguing quote from the Key West Garden Club? I am a Master Gardener and a Master Naturalist, but I only know so much; so I always check out  statistics from experts before posting information about plants. I have a beautiful Paradise tree in my yard, it came from the raffle table at my chapter's program night about six years ago.   Paradise tree                Simarouba glauca For the first six years the little tree had a perfect, closed, cone shape; but just this summer I was astounded one morning to walk out and notice that my tree had changed. The canopy had begun to open up, there were open spaces between the layers of branches. It seemed to happen overnight. Proving again that a garden is constantly in motion, which is one of the fascinating things about o...
Read more