Stems 3 to 7 feet high, sparingly branched or simple, glabrous or with scant pubescence, from a perennial root. Leaves evenly pinnate, not sensitive to the touch, petioled and with a club-shaped gland near the base of the petiole; leaflets twelve to twenty, oblong, blunt but mucronate at the apex, rounded at the base, ciliate, 1 to 2 inches long, one-fourth to two-thirds of an inch wide. Flowers yellow, about two-thirds to three-fourths of an inch broad, numerous, in pubescent axillary racemes on the upper part of the plant. Calyx lobes five, nearly equal, ovate or oblong, obtuse; corolla nearly regular, of five spreading, nearly equal, clawed petals; stamens ten, the upper three imperfect. Fruit a flat linear pod, 3 to 4 inches long and about one-fourth of an inch wide, curved, pubescent, containing flat, suborbicular seeds. The segments of the pod are about as long as broad.
Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum
Plate 104
Wild Or American Senna Wild Or American Senna - Cassia marilandica
In moist meadows, marshes and swamps, sometimes on springy hillsides, Massachusetts to central New York, Ohio, Tennessee and North Carolina. Rather rare and local in New York, frequently seen along the Hudson River valley and up the Mohawk, northward along West Canada creek to Newport in Herkimer county, which appears to be the northern limit of its range. Flowering in July and August.