Partridge Pea, Prairie Senna, Golden Cassia, Chamaecrista fasciculata (Michx.), Native Minnesota Wildflower plant, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Partridge Pea	Chamaecrista fasciculata (Michx.) Greene	Pea (Fabaceae)	Upland	Late Summer to Early Autumn
Other names and notes	(Prairie Senna, Golden Cassia). Partridge Pea was formerly classified in the genus Cassia, one of the Sennas. These plants have pinnate leaves, many leaflets and the fruit in a pod. This plant has 8-15 pairs of leaflets, yellow flowers up to 1 1/2" wide with 5 petals that are about equal size. Four however have red at the base. 10 stamens of unequal length. Multiple flowers on long stalks will grow on a raceme springing from the leaf axils. It is an annual and usually only noticed along the path edges as it does not grow over 2 1/2 feet high and young plants can be as short as 4" with a single flower as some of the photos below indicate. Fruits mature into a flat straight pod. It requires full to partial sun and dryer upland sites.




Above: The long leaf showing the paired leaflets. Below: The flat seed pods, this example - from very late August.	Flowers: Note the red at the base of the petals.

Notes: Eloise Butler first noted this plants presence in the Garden when she saw the blooms in 1911. This plant was listed on Martha Crone's 1951 inventory of plants in the Garden at that time. It is native to certain counties of Minnesota along the Mississippi River from the Metro area south and also along the south side of the Minnesota River and several adjacent counties. This is the limit of its northern exposure. In the U. S. it ranges from the central plains eastward. Not known in Canada. It is considered weedy in certain states.

Eloise Butler wrote of this plant: "The beauty of the large flower of clear, bright yellow is enhanced by a purplish brown eye formed by the stamens and the blotching of some of the petals. The delicate, fresh, green leaflets of the compound leaf close together when touched and also for protection from cold at night." Published Aug. 13, 1911 in the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

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