Species Overview

Native to: South America

Introduced to Florida as an ornamental in the early 1900s, however due to taxonomic confusion that still persists today, it may often be mislabeled in horticulture and misidenstified in home landscapes. Learn more about this issue in Christmas Cassia Causes Confusion, by Extension Botanist Marc Frank.

Species Characteristics

Family: Fabaceae

Habit: Sprawling evergreen shrub to 4 m tall and wide, with somewhat zigzag, sparsely hairy stems.

Leaves: alternate, stalked, even-pinnately compound. Leaflets in 3-6 pairs, oblong with rounded tips, terminal largest, to 4 cm long. Petioles with gland above, between lowermost leaflets and occasionally between others.

Flowers: yellow, 3-4 cm across, in 3- to 12-flowered showy racemes near stem tips. Stamen filaments prominent, curved.

Fruit/Seeds: brown slender, cylindric, glabrous pod 7-12 cm long.

Distribution in Florida: Central and South

Impacts

Displaces native vegetation in disturbed and undisturbed areas of Florida’s tropical hammocks, coastal strands, and canal banks.

Do not plant.

Isolated plants can be dug out and roots removed. Replace with native plants in home and business landscapes.

None known.

Basal bark (Fluroxypyr 200 g/L) or cut stump (Glyphosate 41.0% L 360 g/L), per FNAI.

Consult your local UF IFAS Extension for further assistance with management recommendations.