Candlestick Plant / Candlebush

Senna alata (L.) Roxb.

SEN-na    ah-LAT-ah

Caesalpiniaceae (Legumes)

Key to Senna Mill.

Synonym: Cassia alata L.

Explanation of name: Senna is a Greek work adapted from the Arabic word sana which means tender tree or shrub (AUS, PBCC). The Latin word alata means winged. (DEH)

Natural range: Tropical America (ISE, DEH)

Recognition: Shrub.  Leaves even-pinnate with 7-12 pairs of obovate-ovate leaflets, 2"-4" long.  Flowers yellow, numerous, and borne in tall spike-like racemes. Fruit slender conspicuously 4-winged legume, 4"-6" long (ISE, DEH, HOR, BA2)

Landscape uses: Specimen shrub, border accent shrub  (BR1, DEH, HOR)