Fine-leaf Desert Senna
Buds nearly Open
Ellura
Fine-leaf Desert Senna
New Flower
 
                      
Fine-leaf Desert Senna (Senna artemisioides ssp filifolia)Class: Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida)
Order: Legumes (Fabales)
Family: Legume (Fabaceae or Leguminosae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Fine-leaf Desert Senna (Senna artemisioides ssp filifolia)
This Photo:     New Flowers
Other name: Silver Cassia

Thank you Jean-Philippe Basuyaux for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
Bright yellow flowers with 5 petals.
Leaves are light green and very long, thin and cylindrical which split in two half way along (into leaflets). Look more like new stems than leaves.
Overall the bush looks spiky on top. Very easy to confuse with s.a. ssp zygophylla as they both seem to have narrow leaves. But closer inspection reveals the filifolia having cylindrical leaves, whereas the zygophylla has very curved end leaflets.
Bright green flat pods (similar to beans) dry on the bush to a dark rusty brown and are crispy.
Also very similar to ssp petiolaris. As ssp filifolia leaves age, the base of the leaf flattens out, so is not totally cylindrical as it is when young. But notice it is still divided in the middle (ie half and half).

Copyright © 2012-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 06-Oct-2012
This species is classed as LC (Least Concern) in the Murray Mallee, SA, by DENR (Regional Species Status Assessments, July 2010)