Senna macranthera

Senna macranthera is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree in the Fabaceae family native to the Cerrado, Caatinga, and dry forests of Brazil. The species typically reaches four to ten metres in height with an open, spreading crown and grey, slightly fissured bark. The alternate leaves are pinnately compound, bearing several pairs of broadly elliptic to obovate leaflets, each three to six centimetres long with rounded tips and entire margins. From spring through early summer the tree produces large, showy terminal panicles of bright yellow, slightly asymmetrical flowers about three centimetres across, which are extremely conspicuous against the foliage. The fruits are flattened, dark brown legume pods up to twenty-five centimetres long, containing numerous compressed seeds. The species is widely planted as an ornamental street tree throughout tropical regions.