Habitat
A weed of roadsides, waste areas, disturbed sites, pastures, grasslands, open woodlands, coastal environs and crops in tropical, subtropical and semi-arid regions.
Description
Senna occidentalis is an unarmed slender upright and short-lived (annual or biennial) shrub, 0.5-2.5 m tall, distinguished by foetid odour.
Its once-compound leaves consist of 3-7 pairs of leaflets (2-10 cm long and 2-3 cm wide) that have pointed tips. A mounded gland at base of leaf stalk, no glands between leaflets.
There is a conspicuous dark-coloured gland near the base of the stalk of each leaf.
Its flowers (2-3 cm across) have five yellow petals and are borne in small clusters in the upper leaf forks.
Its fruit is a somewhat flattened, straight or slightly sickle-shaped, pod (7.5-13 cm long and 8-10 mm wide).
This species gives off a foul odour when damaged.
Reproduction and dispersal
This plant reproduces entirely by seed. Seeds are dispersed by water or in mud sticking to animals, humans, machinery and vehicles. They may also be spread as a contaminant of agricultural produce.
