Kampala Tree and Palm Directory

Tree Species
Common Name
Tree Description
Tree Uses

English: Scrambled Egg Bush, Kolomona, Scrambled Egg Tree, Glossy Shower, Golden Senna, Glaucous Cassia, Sunshine Tree, Bushy Cassia, Gelenggang, Kalamona.

+ Tree Species

Senna surattensis

+ Tree Family

Fabaceae (Leguminosae)

+ Ecology

Native to Tropical Asia. It is now commonly planted in many tropical countries. It’s usually a habitat of teak forests and marshy soils, at elevations up to 300 metres. Although many species within the family Fabaceae have a symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria, this species is said to be devoid of such a relationship and therefore does not fix atmospheric nitrogen. S. surattensis has escaped from cultivation to roadsides, pastures, and waste places at lower altitudes and is quite common in urban and semi-urban areas. It grows well in moist Soils, well-drained soils, fertile loamy soils. In Kampala, this tree can be found within Makerere University.

+ Description

Evergreen shrub can grow up to 4 m high, becoming a small tree.

BARK: Grayish brown, smooth

LEAVES: Even-pinnate green leaves with 6 - 9 pairs of leaflets, alternate, petioles measuring about 1.5 - 3 cm long, leaf measuring about 18 cm long, leaflets in pairs and usually obovate to oblong, measuring about 2.5 - 4 cm long and 1 - 1.7 cm wide, upper surface glabrous and lower surface slightly pubescent.

FLOWERS: 10 to 15 yellow flowers in a raceme from the upper leaf axils, measuring about 3 - 6 cm long, peduncle measuring about 2.5 - 5 cm long.

FRUITS: a flat pod, glabrous with papery valves, measuring about 7 - 10 cm long and 1 - 1.5 cm wide, contains about 15 - 25 seeds, glossy flattened and each seed measuring about 8 mm long and 4 mm wide.

+ Uses

Edible: Young leaves. http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php id=Senna+surattensis

Medicine: Roots, leaves, flowers. http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php id=Senna+surattensis

Agroforestry: Often interplanted in young teak plantations and used as a shade tree, often used as a hedge plant.

An ornamental tree.

+ Propagation

Seeds.

+ Management

+ Remarks

The species is known to occur, and is often cultivated as an ornamental in many tropical and subtropical regions including Southeast Asia, Africa, and the West Indies, and is known to have escaped into the wild, naturalizing in many of these places (Irwin and Barneby, 1982).



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