Vegetation Around Las Vegas, Desert Senna (Senna armata)

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Desert Senna (Senna armata)
Shrubs Around Las Vegas, Vegetation Around Las Vegas

General: Desert Senna (Senna armata) is an upright shrub with long, smooth, gray-green, naked stems. During spring, look for compound leaves with a long central axis and three pairs of tiny leaflets. The yellow flowers are big and showy, and the beanpods are 2-3 inches long.

Desert Senna is an uncommon component of shrub communities on sandy and gravelly soils in washes and flats in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Around Las Vegas, look for Desert Senna in desert scrub communities around Boulder City and areas south, such as in the Mojave National Preserve.

Family: Legume (Fabaceae).

Desert Senna, usually just leafless stems, erupts into a colorful mound of big, yellow flowers during spring.



Desert Senna: usually just leafless stems	Desert Senna: usually just leafless stems (with seedpods)
Desert Senna: usually just leafless stems	Desert Senna: usually just leafless stems
Desert Senna: green leafless stems	Desert Senna: green leafless stems
Desert Senna compound leaves	Desert Senna compound leaves
Desert Senna: typically three pairs of leaflets	Desert Senna: typically three pairs of leaflets
Desert Senna flower buds arise from leaf axils	Desert Senna flower buds arise from leaf axils, but leaves drop off
Desert Senna in bloom	Desert Senna in bloom
Desert Senna: single flower stalk	Desert Senna: single flower stalk
Desert Senna flowers	Desert Senna flowers
Desert Senna: back of flower showing sepals and petals	Desert Senna: back of flower showing sepals and petals
Desert Senna flowers and seedpods	Desert Senna seedpods emerge while petals remain on the flower
Desert Senna seedpods emerge while petals remain on the flower	Desert Senna seedpods are flattened like a green bean
Desert Senna ripening seedpods	Desert Senna ripening seedpods
Desert Senna dried seedpod	Desert Senna dried seedpod

Note: All distances, elevations, and other facts are approximate. Names generally follow the USDA database.
; Last updated 220813

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