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Senna spectabilis; photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2025-04-06

Senna spectabilis (DC.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby

Casia amarilla; Whitebark senna; Scented Cassia

Fabaceae · Mexico Southwest, Belize +17

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Senna spectabilis, photograph (c) Fabricio Carvalho da Silva, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senna spectabilis, photograph (c) Fabricio Carvalho da Silva, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senna spectabilis, photograph (c) Fabricio Carvalho da Silva, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senna spectabilis, photograph (c) Fabricio Carvalho da Silva, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senna spectabilis, photograph (c) Fabricio Carvalho da Silva, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senna spectabilis, photograph (c) Fabricio Carvalho da Silva, some rights reserved (CC BY) 75 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
17.2°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,250mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–36DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Senna spectabilis is a plant species of the legume family (Fabaceae) in the subfamily Caesalpinioideae native to South and Central America. They are often grown as an ornamental in front yards, parks, gardens, buildings etc. due to their bright yellow flowers that bloom during the summer months. They are also known as golden wonder tree, American cassia, popcorn tree, Cassia excelsa, golden shower tree or Archibald's cassia.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,706 mm of 2,190 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 2.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,190 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,706 mm of it April to November. Wettest month October at 254 mm, driest month January at 92 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,252 mm to 3,367 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,250 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,190 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 36 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 11.9 °C to 20.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.6 °C in April and May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 17.2 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 67% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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 spectabilis through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 17.2 °C; 2,190 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 28–36RH 64–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 148 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 21–3025 / 21–3026 / 22–3027 / 22–3127 / 21–3126 / 21–3026 / 21–3026 / 22–3026 / 21–3025 / 21–2925 / 21–2924 / 21–29
Night °C17 / 12–2118 / 13–2118 / 14–2219 / 15–2219 / 15–2318 / 14–2318 / 14–2318 / 14–2318 / 14–2218 / 14–2218 / 13–2118 / 13–21
Rain mm92 / 45–162105 / 41–174150 / 39–244215 / 53–334230 / 82–416203 / 74–439180 / 47–458186 / 45–447217 / 79–446254 / 126–402221 / 55–335137 / 50–224
DLI31 / 24–3532 / 28–3735 / 31–3833 / 27–4132 / 26–4133 / 25–3935 / 27–4136 / 30–4234 / 29–4031 / 27–3528 / 24–3329 / 22–33
RH %66 / 56–7065 / 57–7064 / 58–7065 / 59–7166 / 58–7066 / 60–7165 / 59–7164 / 58–7166 / 58–7167 / 59–7267 / 60–7367 / 58–71

Records on both sides of the equator: the 24 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 148 cells that remain: the 35 at least 10° north and the 113 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1148 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum 14.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.9 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 148 grid cells holding the 321 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 1729:2072 (3.525, -76.375). 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 148 distinct grid cells holding 321 of the 346 in-range records on the northern side of the equator (35 cells poleward of 10° north, 24 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 1729:2072 (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 3.50_-76.250, lapse-corrected -1148 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 964 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.
NativeMexico Southwest, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay · introduced: Canary Is., Benin, Gambia, The, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Comoros, China South-Central, China Southeast, East Himalaya, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, New Guinea, Queensland, Hawaii, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is. · 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 marker7.062, -75.684 · in the densest population, 203 records (24% 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 845 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 321 of them in the land cells it reads, of 346 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 701 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 148 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 499 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 of the 845 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 spectabilis, photograph 1did not loadSenna spectabilis, photograph 2did not loadSenna spectabilis, photograph 3did not loadSenna spectabilis, photograph 4did not loadSenna spectabilis, photograph 5did not loadSenna spectabilis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Fabricio Carvalho da Silva, 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.

Aiouea montana Aiouea montana Laurel avispillo Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribeCtenitis ampla Ctenitis ampla Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizSolanum pseudolulo Solanum pseudolulo Solanaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedCroton gossypiifolius Croton gossypiifolius Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Jo RobertsGuadua angustifolia Guadua angustifolia Colombian giant thorny Photo: CC BY, Jacob SaucierPhytolacca rivinoides Phytolacca rivinoides Venezuelan pokeweed Photo: CC BY, Cen_Bamper

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 spectabilis; Cassia trinitatis; Cathartocarpus humboldtianus; Pseudocassia spectabilis. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(DC.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby
Native to
Mexico Southwest, Belize, Costa Rica +16
Wild records
845 in range · 701 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; 21 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (20 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; 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 3.50_-76.250, lapse-corrected -1148 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1148 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
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 187 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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