Sicklepod (Senna Obtusifolia)
Fabaceae (Bean Family)
Group: Dicot (Broadleaf)
Erect annual or short-lived perennial herb, native of the American tropics. It is commonly found in cultivated fields, waste lands, roadsides, and non-crop areas.
Seedling cotyledons are round and hairless with no white hairs below, which distinguishes it from coffee senna. Cotyledons have 3 to 5 distinct veins in the upper surface joining the midvein. Seedling leaves are alternate, hairless, light green with 3 to 5 leaflets, rounded at the tip.
Leaves of mature plants are alternate, light green, pinnately compound, with 2 to 3 pairs of bluntly oval leaflets.
Stem is erect, branching, yellow green, sparsely hairy, and 2 inches to up to 6 feet in height.
Flowers are yellow, 1 or 2 borne on stalks between the leaf and stem. Fruit is a linear pod, with shinny brownish seeds.
Roots are fibrous from a taproot.
Propagation is by seed.