Senna italica Mill. / Synonyms: Cassia italica (Mill.) F.W.Andr. , it is a prostrate or ascending shrublet or herb from a woody base, to 15-60 cm high. Leaves paripinnate, stipules 5-6 × 1 mm, narrowly triangular, pubescent, persistent, petiole 0.3-2 cm long, pubescent, rachis 5.5-8 cm long, pubescent, eglandular or with a very small reddish gland between the leaflet pairs, leaflets in (4) 5-7 (8) pairs, 1.6-3.6 × 0.6-2 cm, the distal largest, oblong to broadly obovate, base broadly cuneate or rounded, slightly asymmetric, apex obtuse to rounded or retuse, usually mucronate, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, the margin and midrib beneath more densely pubescent, petiolules up to 1 mm long, glabrous to pubescent. Branchlets pale grey-brown, pubescent, weakly longitudinally ridged. Inflorescences axillary many-flowered racemes, 7-26 cm long, including the peduncle, bracts c.5 × 3 mm, broadly ovate, acuminate, pubescent, caducous, pedicels 2-3 mm long at anthesis. Sepals 5, elliptic to obovate, glabrous. Petals orange to yellow, obovate, slightly unequal. Stamens 10, two fertile with long arcuate anthers and very short filaments; five fertile with short straight anthers and straight filaments, three probably sterile with anthers curved into a semi-circle and straight filaments. Ovary flattened, glabrous to villous, style terete, stigma terminal. Pod weakly curved to almost straight, flattened, usually bearing distinct crests on the flat faces in the middle of each segment, mucronate (style-base), tardily dehiscent along both sutures. Seeds brown, 6-7 × 2-3 mm, obovate, flattened, with a narrowly elliptic areole c.2 mm long on each broad face.
Flowering in: Sept-Oct.
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