Senna pallida

Senna pallida is a slender shrub or small tree in the Fabaceae family, typically reaching 1 to 4 metres in height, native to the Americas from southern Mexico and the Caribbean through Central America to northern South America. The plant bears alternate, pinnately compound leaves with three to seven pairs of opposite, ovate to elliptic leaflets, each 1 to 4 centimetres long, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, with rounded to acute apices. A small petiolar gland is often present between the lowest pair of leaflets, a useful diagnostic for the genus. The inflorescences are short axillary or terminal racemes bearing showy bright yellow flowers about 2 to 3 centimetres across, with five slightly unequal petals and ten stamens of varying size, the lower three larger and curved. The fruit is a slender, flattened to subterete legume 5 to 12 centimetres long, becoming dark brown at maturity and containing numerous transversely arranged seeds within papery septa.