Coffee Senna (Senna Occidentalis)
Fabaceae (Bean Family)
Group: Dicot (Broadleaf)
Erect annual herb native of the tropics. It is commonly found in cultivated fields, waste areas, and roadsides.
Seedling cotyledon is rounded, smooth above, with white hairs below which distinguishes it from sickle pod. The first leaf is compound, and the leaflets are egg-shaped with a pointed tip.
Leaves of mature plants are alternate and pinnately divided. Leaflets are egg-shaped, and numerous with pointed tips.
Stem is erect, 1 to 10 feet tall, and smooth.
Flower is solitary, yellow, and borne on terminal end of leaf axils. Fruit is a flattened pod that produces brown seeds.
Roots are fibrous from a taproot.
Propagation is by seed.