| Author | (J.F. Gmelin) S.F. Blake | |
| Distribution | Throughout the southwestern 50% of the Coastal Plain, including the Sandhills region. A few records for the eastern edge of the Piedmont, including disjunctly in Warren and Halifax counties. Surprisingly, no records for the northeastern half of the Coastal Plain, considering that it is currently found in the southeastern counties of VA. This is a Coastal Plain species, essentially, ranging from southeastern VA south to central FL and west to LA. | |
| Abundance | Fairly common to locally common in the Coastal Plain, including the Sandhills; rare and local in the eastern edge of the Piedmont. | |
| Habitat | This is a species of various pinelands, mostly associated with Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris). It favors pine flatwoods of various moisture, drier portions of pine savannas, and the more mesic or loamy portions of Pine/Scrub Oak Sandhills. | |
| Phenology | Blooms from August to October, and fruits from October to November. | |
| Identification | This is a medium-sized, bushy herb, with many wiry branches that are mainly ascending. It ranges to about 2 feet tall and often just as wide. It has many opposite leaves, each of which is barely 2/5-inch long, and deeply divided into numerous pinnate segments, each of which is linear. The numerous flowers are in leaf axils, rather small but light yellow to canary yellow, each with 5 spreading petals and a red triangle at the base of the petals. Each flower is only about 2/3-inch across, but still quite attractive owing to the reddish mark on each. Given the very needle-like leaf segments, this is an unusual plant, even without the flowers. The other species of the genus is the now historical (in NC) S. pectinata; it has lanceolate leaf segments (and not linear). S. cassioides is thankfully reasonably common in the flatwoods and other pinelands of the southern half of the state. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
| |
| Other Common Name(s) | Senna Seymeria | |
| State Rank | S3S4 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FAC link |
| USACE-emp | FAC link |
