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Chamaecrista mimosoides; photograph (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-04-15

Chamaecrista mimosoides (L.) Greene

Japanese-tea; Chamaecrista; Fish-bone cassia; Five-leaf cassia

Fabaceae · Cape Verde, Benin +65

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Chamaecrista mimosoides, photograph (c) Hildegard Klein, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecrista mimosoides, photograph (c) Hildegard Klein, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecrista mimosoides, photograph (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecrista mimosoides, photograph (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecrista mimosoides, photograph (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chamaecrista mimosoides, photograph (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) 111 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.6°C
Record low 6.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Jan, Mar, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,181mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–41DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes December to April, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Chamaecrista mimosoides is a species of flowering plant in the plant family Fabaceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Chamaecrista mimosoides", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Chamaecrista

Chamaecrista is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae. Members of the genus are commonly known as sensitive pea. Several species are capable of rapid plant movement. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Chamaecrista", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (656 mm of 918 mm) falls in December to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.0 °C against a yearly mean of 25.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to October.

Rain

918 mm in the median year at the habitat, 656 mm of it December to April. Wettest month February at 165 mm, driest month July at 17 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 824 mm to 1,783 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,181 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 918 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 11.6 °C, the absolute minimum 6.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 8.0 °C to 22.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.4 °C in November and December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +18 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Chamaecrista mimosoides through the yearWarmest months January, March, November and December, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 17.8 °C; 918 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°41.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER6.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 28–41RH 56–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 434 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C32 / 26–3531 / 26–3632 / 25–3631 / 24–3530 / 22–3328 / 20–3128 / 20–3028 / 21–3229 / 24–3531 / 25–3632 / 26–3632 / 26–34
Night °C23 / 17–2523 / 17–2523 / 17–2523 / 15–2521 / 12–2419 / 9–2318 / 8–2218 / 10–2220 / 12–2322 / 14–2423 / 16–2523 / 16–26
Rain mm148 / 3–364165 / 7–361123 / 41–28585 / 35–15936 / 6–17220 / 1–19817 / 2–22518 / 1–25324 / 4–21064 / 21–15783 / 9–149135 / 4–284
DLI37 / 34–4136 / 33–4136 / 32–4036 / 29–3833 / 25–3630 / 23–3428 / 24–3531 / 25–3937 / 28–4341 / 30–4541 / 32–4538 / 33–42
RH %62 / 41–6663 / 43–6761 / 50–6659 / 53–6558 / 50–6657 / 48–6756 / 47–6957 / 45–6958 / 45–6959 / 48–6658 / 51–6561 / 45–65

Records on both sides of the equator: the 227 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 434 cells that remain: the 281 at least 10° south and the 153 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 434 grid cells holding the 515 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2071:6228 (-13.575, 131.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 434 distinct grid cells holding 515 of the 811 in-range records on the southern side of the equator (227 cells poleward of 10° north, 281 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2071:6228 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -13.50_131.250, lapse-corrected +18 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 121 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCape Verde, Benin, Burkina, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Yemen, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia · introduced: Réunion, China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Wallis-Futuna Is., Caroline Is., Marianas · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker10.034, 3.382 · in the densest population, 323 records (21% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual, perennial or subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1552 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 515 of them in the land cells it reads, of 811 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1416 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 48 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 741 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1552 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Chamaecrista mimosoides, photograph 1did not loadChamaecrista mimosoides, photograph 2did not loadChamaecrista mimosoides, photograph 3did not loadChamaecrista mimosoides, photograph 4did not loadChamaecrista mimosoides, photograph 5did not loadChamaecrista mimosoides, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Hildegard Klein, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Ophioglossum costatum Large adder's tongue Fuirena umbellata Fuirena umbellata Yefen Photo: CC BY-SA, Lachlan CopelandUtricularia aurea Utricularia aurea Asian golden bladderwort Photo: CC BY, Scott W. GavinsTriplaris gardneriana Triplaris gardneriana Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, Thomaz Ricardo Favreto SinaniCrotalaria calycina Crotalaria calycina Hairy Rattlepod Photo: CC0, author not statedDentella repens Dentella repens Creeping Dentella Photo: CC BY, portioid

Other Chamaecrista 11 in the reference

Chamaecrista absus Chamaecrista absus Tropical sensitive pea Photo: CC BY, Robert TaylorChamaecrista desvauxii Chamaecrista desvauxii Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Connor Connolly-MoylsChamaecrista ensiformis Chamaecrista ensiformis Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizChamaecrista fasciculata Chamaecrista fasciculata Showy partridge-pea Photo: CC BY, Paul RootsChamaecrista garambiensis Chamaecrista garambiensis Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Min-Hsuan NIChamaecrista glandulosa Chamaecrista glandulosa Jamaican broom Photo: CC BY-SA, Oscar C. González MartínezChamaecrista greggii Chamaecrista greggii Gregg's sensitive pea Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffChamaecrista nictitans Chamaecrista nictitans Sensitive partridge pea Photo: CC0, author not statedChamaecrista nomame Chamaecrista nomame Field sensitive pea Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Chamaecrista rotundifolia Chamaecrista rotundifolia Roundleaf sensitive pea Photo: CC BY, geosesarmaChamaecrista serpens Chamaecrista serpens Slender sensitive pea Photo: CC BY, Daniel McNair

Names & registers

Also known as Cassia amoena; Cassia angustissima; Cassia auricoma var. glabra; Cassia capensis var. humifusa; Cassia chamaecrista f. auricoma and 23 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(L.) Greene
Native to
Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina +64
Wild records
1552 in range · 1416 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (6 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -13.50_131.250, lapse-corrected +18 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Chamaecrista mimosoides (L.) Greene (the item's: IPNI 485861-1, POWO 54606-2)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 117 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…