Flowering and fruiting: October-March

Distribution: Native of South East Asia; now widely cultivated

Habitat: Planted as ornamental tree

IUCN status: Least concern

Endemic: No

Uses: In traditional medicine, the fruit is used to charm away intestinal worms and to prevent convulsions in children. The heartwood is said to be a laxative, and a decoction is used against scabies. The tree is grown to provide shade along roads. The leaves are used as green manure. In India, it is used as a host for sandalwood. Firewood.

Key Characters: Senna siamea are trees with leaves paripinnate, alternate, pulvinate; leaflets opposite, estipellate; lamina oblong, elliptic-oblong, margin entire. Flowers bisexual, yellow, in terminal or axillary corymbose recemose panicles; sepals 5, greenish-yellow; petals 5, ovate-elliptic; stamens 10, upper 3 staminodes small; ovary half inferior, sessile, ovules many. Fruit a pod, long stipitate, strap-shaped, compressed woody with thick sutures.