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Senna sophera; photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-05

Senna sophera (L.) Roxb.

Algarrobilla; Baner; Kasunda

Fabaceae · Belize, Panama +12

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Senna sophera, photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senna sophera, photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senna sophera, photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senna sophera, photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senna sophera, photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senna sophera, photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY) 146 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
21.9°C
Record low 18.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,378mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–43DLI
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 May to October, 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

Senna sophera is a shrub or tree in the bean family Fabaceae. It is now widespread in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, but is believed to be native to tropical America. Originally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 as Cassia sophera, it has acquired a large number of synonyms. Vernacular names include algarrobilla, baner, kasunda, kasaundi (Hindi) and kolkasunda (Bengali).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Senna sophera", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (937 mm of 1,325 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.8 °C against a yearly mean of 25.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

1,325 mm in the median year at the habitat, 937 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 191 mm, driest month December at 51 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,008 mm to 1,728 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,378 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,325 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: 27 to 43 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 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 21.9 °C, the absolute minimum 18.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.5 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 17.3 °C to 23.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.8 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.9 °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: 61 to 65% 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 +31 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 Senna sophera through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 21.5 °C; 1,325 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.15°20°25°30°35°31.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER18.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 27–43RH 61–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 16 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 °C26 / 24–2726 / 24–2827 / 24–2928 / 25–3028 / 26–3029 / 27–3130 / 28–3230 / 28–3229 / 28–3128 / 27–2927 / 26–2826 / 25–28
Night °C22 / 17–2422 / 17–2422 / 18–2423 / 19–2424 / 20–2525 / 21–2625 / 21–2626 / 21–2725 / 21–2625 / 20–2623 / 19–2522 / 18–24
Rain mm54 / 30–10952 / 36–8153 / 45–10379 / 44–135170 / 100–241132 / 84–220118 / 76–165151 / 92–197191 / 127–225175 / 142–26299 / 59–19751 / 34–129
DLI28 / 25–3133 / 30–3638 / 36–4042 / 41–4342 / 40–4342 / 39–4443 / 40–4441 / 39–4237 / 35–3933 / 30–3528 / 26–3127 / 23–30
RH %62 / 59–6461 / 59–6361 / 59–6362 / 59–6463 / 61–6664 / 63–6663 / 62–6663 / 62–6764 / 63–6765 / 62–6864 / 60–6762 / 59–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 16 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (16 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), 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 1439:2064 (18.025, -76.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 18.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.2 °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 16 distinct grid cells holding 16 of the 17 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1439:2064 (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 18.00_-76.875, lapse-corrected +31 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 169 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.
NativeBelize, Panama, Aruba, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Guyana · introduced: Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Seychelles, Iraq, Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Philippines, Sumatera, New Guinea, Queensland, Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Marianas, Marshall Is., Honduras, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil Northeast · 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 marker12.189, -69.001 · in the densest population, 33 records (67% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 49 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 16 of them in the land cells it reads, of 17 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 47 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 631 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 32 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 4° block of the 49 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Senna sophera, photograph 1did not loadSenna sophera, photograph 2did not loadSenna sophera, photograph 3did not loadSenna sophera, photograph 4did not loadSenna sophera, photograph 5did not loadSenna sophera, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Jupunba glauca Jupunba glauca Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Brian Oakes Haiti HunterThrinax parviflora Thrinax parviflora Broom palm Photo: CC BY-SA, Kyle WicombTerminalia molinetii Terminalia molinetii Combretaceae Photo: CC BY, Josiah LonderéeSchaefferia frutescens Schaefferia frutescens Florida boxwood Photo: CC0, author not statedPithecellobium unguis-cati Pithecellobium unguis-cati Catclaw blackbead Photo: CC BY, Cricket RaspetEchites umbellatus Echites umbellatus Devil's potato Photo: CC BY, Tom Field

Other Senna 68 in the reference

Senna acclinis Senna acclinis Rainforest Cassia Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneySenna aciphylla Senna aciphylla Sprawling Cassia Photo: CC BY, Guy TaseskiSenna alata Senna alata Emperor's candlesticks Photo: CC BY, renjus boxSenna alexandrina Senna alexandrina Alexandrian senna Photo: CC BY, Karim HaddadSenna aphylla Senna aphylla Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Guillermo DebandiSenna armata Senna armata Desert senna Photo: CC BY, Jacob SaucierSenna arnottiana Senna arnottiana Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossSenna artemisioides Senna artemisioides Silver senna Photo: CC BY, Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）Senna atomaria Senna atomaria Flor de San Jose Photo: CC BY, Jose Luis Leon de la LuzSenna auriculata Senna auriculata Matara-tea Photo: CC BY, Rohit NaniwadekarSenna aymara Senna aymara Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Thomaz Ricardo Favreto SinaniSenna bacillaris Senna bacillaris Whitebark senna Photo: CC BY, scaup all 69 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cassia aegyptiaca; Cassia atroviridis; Cassia autropurpurea; Cassia canca; Cassia chinensis and 43 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(L.) Roxb.
Native to
Belize, Panama, Aruba +11
Wild records
49 in range · 47 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
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; 15 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (9 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.00_-76.875, lapse-corrected +31 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22
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 99 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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