Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Perennial from a slightly woody base and woody rootstock with spreading and ascending branches 30-60 cm long and grayish to tawny-velvety pubescence throughout.

Leaves: Stipules linear, 5-12 mm long, caducous; petioles 2-5 cm long, bearing a small apiculate gland on a stalk to 3 mm long between the lowest of 2-3 pairs of leaflets; leaflets elliptic to oblong or oblong-obovate to 1.5 cm wide, 1-3 cm long, rounded and mucronulate at apex.

Flowers: Peduncles 3-7 cm long, normally surpassing leaves, 3-7 flowered, pedicels 1-1.5 cm long; sepals 6-8 mm long, densely hirsutulous, rounded at apex, thin; clawed petals 10-16 mm long, imbricated in bud, yellow, dark-veined.

Fruits: Pod oblong, 5-6 mm wide, 2-3.5 cm long, moderately appressed-pubescent, bearing a subulate tip 2-4 mm long.

Ecology: Found on flats and along washes, in gravelly and rocky soils from 1,000-3,000 ft (305-914 m); flowers April-October.

Distribution: s CA, s NV, AZ, s NM; south to n MEX.

Notes: Distinguished from S. bauhinioides by having 2-4 pairs of leaflets, rather than a single pair.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Senna is from Arabic Sena, while covesii is named for Elliot Coues (1842-1899) an American naturalist who is best known for his ornithological work.

Synonyms: Cassia covesii

Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015