Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results:  Risk assessment from the Government of Queensland, Australia (PDF format).

Other Latin names:  Cassia hirsuta L.

Common name(s): [more details]

Chinese: mao jia jue ming

English: stinking cassia

Habit:  shrub

Description:  "Herbs or shrubs, 0.6-2.5 m tall. Young branches, petioles, and rachises of leaves densely yellowish brown villous. Leaves 10-20 cm; petiole 3-6 cm, with a sessile, blackish brown, ovoid-oblong gland near insertion; rachis 7-10 cm, without glands; leaflets 3-7 pairs, ovate-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 3-9 x 1.5-3.5 cm, papery, both surfaces villous, base subrounded, apex acuminate. Racemes axillary or several in axils of apical leaves forming a leafy panicle; peduncles and pedicels villous; bracts early caducous, subulate, hairy. Sepals 5, unequal in size, densely villous, 2 outer small, ovate to obovate, ca. 5 mm, 3 inner puberulent, similar but larger, 7-8 mm. Petals yellow, obovate, 1.4-1.8 cm, glabrous. Stamens 10, 6 or 7 of them fertile, unequal in length, anthers opening by apical pores, staminodes 3 or 4. Ovary hirsute, subsessile; style short, glabrous; stigma small. Legume long, slender, flat, 10-20 x ca. 0.5 cm, densely hirsute on surfaces of valves. Seeds numerous, flat, obovoid, 3-4 mm"  (Flora of China online).

"A coarse herb becoming softly woody in age or a shrub 0.5-3 m high.  From other weedy sennas occurring in Fiji, Senna hirsuta is readily distinguished by its abundant, pale indument.  The leaves are usually 10-25 cm long, with (2-) 3-6 pairs of accrescent leaflets, the distal ones with ovate to elliptic, acuminate blades up to 10.5 x 4 cm.  The 2-8-flowerred racemes have pedicels 10-25 mm long at anthesis and yellow petals up to 8-15 mm long.  The pods are stiffly ascending or outwardly recurved, up to 18 cm long, and very slender" (Smith, 1985; p. 111-112).

Habitat/ecology:  In Fiji, "established as a weed in villages and plantations, along roadsides, and on rocky shores of rivers" (Smith, 1985; p. 111-112).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  South America, most likely Brazil (Smith, 1985; p. 111-112).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Floreana Group	Floreana Island	introduced invasive	Charles Darwin Foundation (2008)
Fiji Fiji Islands	Ovalau Island	introduced invasive	Smith, Albert C. (1985) (pp. 111-112) Voucher cited: Smith 7389
Fiji Fiji Islands	Taveuni Island	introduced invasive	Smith, Albert C. (1985) (pp. 111-112) Voucher cited: DA 11517
Fiji Fiji Islands	Viti Levu Island	introduced invasive	Smith, Albert C. (1985) (pp. 111-112) Vouchers cited: Greenwood 229, 787; DA 10892; DA 10890; DA 16659; Smith 4328; DA 5826; DA 11344; DA 11362; DA 2554; DA 11826; Meebold 16656
New Caledonia New Caledonia	New Caledonia Islands		Swarbrick, John T. (1997) (p. 89)
New Caledonia New Caledonia Archipelago	Île Grande Terre	introduced invasive	Tassin, Jacques (2005)
New Caledonia New Caledonia Archipelago	Île Grande Terre	introduced invasive cultivated	MacKee, H. S. (1994) (p. 73) Vouchers cited: Franc 2240, Déméné in MacKee 15035, MacKee 16069, MacKee 39109, Renevier in MacKee 44396 Spontané
Papua New Guinea Bismarck Archipelago	Bismarck Archipelago	introduced	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)
Papua New Guinea Bismarck Archipelago	Bismarck Archipelago		Peekel, P. G. [translated by E. E. Henty] (1984) (p. 218) Only collected in the area of Toma and Papratava.
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (eastern New Guinea Island)	Papua New Guinea (eastern New Guinea Island)	introduced	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)
Philippines Philippine Islands	Philippine Islands	introduced invasive	Merrill, Elmer D. (1923) (p. 263) Occasional in waste places in the settled areas at low altitudes.
Vanuatu New Hebrides Islands	Vanuatu (Republic of)		Swarbrick, John T. (1997) (p. 89)

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Australia Australia (continental)	Queensland	introduced invasive	Australian Biological Resources Study (2011)
China China	China (People's Republic of)	introduced cultivated	Zhengyi, Wu/Raven, Peter H./Deyuan, Hong (2011) "Cultivated in Guangdong, Yunnan".
China China	Hong Kong	introduced cultivated	Wu, Te-lin (2001) (p. 135) As Cassia hirsuta L.
Colombia Colombia	Colombia (Republic of)	native	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)
Costa Rica Costa Rica	Costa Rica (Republic of)	native	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)
Ecuador (Mainland) Ecuador	Ecuador (Republic of) (continental)	native	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)
El Salvador El Salvador	El Salvador (Republic of)	native	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)
Guatemala Guatemala	Guatemala (Republic of)	native	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)
Mexico Mexico	Mexico (United Mexican States)	native	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)
Panama Panama	Panama (Republic of)	native	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)
Perú Perú	Perú (Republic of)	native	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)
Singapore Singapore	Singapore (Republic of)	introduced invasive	Chong, Kwek Yan/Tan, Hugh T. W./Corlett, Richard T. (2009) (p. 79) Naturalised
Thailand Thailand	Thailand (Kingdom of)	introduced	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)
Vietnam Vietnam	Vietnam (Socialist Republic of)	introduced	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)

Indian Ocean
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Seychelles Seychelles Islands	Seychelles Islands	introduced	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)

Also reported from
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
United States (continental except west coast) United States (other states)	United States (other states)	native	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2011)

Additional information:
Information from the World Agroforestry Centre's AgroForestryTree Database.
Fact sheet from the Government of Queensland, Australia. (PDF format).

Additional online information about Senna hirsuta is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Senna hirsuta as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Senna hirsuta may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Australian Biological Resources Study. 2011. Flora of Australia Online. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.

Charles Darwin Foundation. 2008. Database inventory of introduced plant species in the rural and urban zones of Galapagos. Charles Darwin Foundation, Galapagos, Ecuador.

Charles Darwin Research Station. 2005. CDRS Herbarium records.

Chong, Kwek Yan/Tan, Hugh T. W./Corlett, Richard T. 2009. A checklist of the total vascular plant flora of Singapore: native, naturalised and cultivated species. Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore. 273 pp.

ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre. 2011. International Legume Database & Information Service. Online searchable database.

MacKee, H. S. 1994. Catalogue des plantes introduites et cultivées en Nouvelle-Calédonie. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 164 p.

Merrill, Elmer D. 1923. An enumeration of Philippine flowering plants, vol. 2 [reprint]. Bureau of Printing, Manila. 530 pp.

Peekel, P. G. [translated by E. E. Henty]. 1984. Flora of the Bismarck Archipelago for naturalists. Office of Forests, Division of Botany, Lae, Papua New Guinea. 638 pp. ISBN 9980-66-000-7.

Smith, Albert C. 1985. Flora Vitiensis nova: a new flora of Fiji. National Tropical Botanical Garden, Lawai, Kauai, Hawaii. Volume 3. 758 pp.

Swarbrick, John T. 1997. Weeds of the Pacific Islands. Technical paper no. 209. South Pacific Commission, Noumea, New Caledonia. 124 pp.

Tassin, Jacques. 2005. Jacques Tassin (IAC-CIRAD), personal communication.

Wiggins, I. L./Porter, D. M. 1971. Flora of the Galapágos Islands. Stanford University Press. 998 pp.

Wu, Te-lin. 2001. Check List of Hong Kong Plants. Hong Kong Herbarium and the South China Institute of Botany. Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department Bulletin 1 (revised). 384 pp.

Zhengyi, Wu/Raven, Peter H./Deyuan, Hong. 2011. Flora of China (online resource).