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Butterfly Garden

Help with Cassia

12 years ago

Hi all,

I know there have been some threads about which Cassia actually work as butterfly hosts and which don't and I'm also hoping maybe there are some other people now on the forum with experience with them.

I have a Cassia that was supposed to be a native but it's not and I'm trying to be sure I know which one it is, whether butterflies will use it and whether I have it properly sited.

I have photos of it in a thread in name this plant so I'll just link to that.

Thanks!

Teri

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to name that plant thread

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Comments (5)

MissSherry
12 years ago
Unfortunately, Teri, I agree with the poster who said it was Cassia (or Senna) corymbosa. This plant is native to Argentina. I had one years ago, and never found a single sulphur egg on it.
Interestingly, the most widely used cassias in my area are C. obtusifolia/sicklepod, a very common weed of roadsides and pastures, and C. bicapsularis/Christmas cassia. Neither of these are native. The only native cassias I know of in this area are C. fasciculata/partridge pea and another "ferny" leaf type that I think is C. nictitans. These are common roadside plants, but I've never found a caterpillar on them or the partridge peas I've grown specifically for them. I guess this is a case where non-natives have become so common that they've supplanted the natives in popularity with the local sulphurs. Surely, if there was no Christmas cassia or sicklepod, they'd go back to using the natives? I wonder!
Butterfly gardeners in Florida have reported that their sulphurs like C. alata/candlestick cassia, but they only laid eggs on mine once, before the favorites had leafed out much, and I never found any caterpillars. I don't know if the eggs were duds, or if there was something about the C. alata leaves that killed them? C. alata is very cold tender, also, so I don't grow that one anymore.
Sherry
butterflyman
12 years ago
In St. Louis, MO, Partridge Pea - an annual, and Senna marilandica - Wild Senna, a perennial both work as host plants.
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I meant thin as not thick like a magnolia trees leaves. Not thin like tiny,like on a thorny cassia or an acacia tree,or a poinciana tree. Eric 9B the flowers in that last picture looks the same, BUT, those leaves are VERY VERY tiny next to my leaves. I meant my leaves are not thick,like on an orange tree, or a magnolia. They are paper thin and they are the Splendida tree. Those leaves in your last pictures are what I expect on an Acacia tree with comes with thorns all over it. THAT is my next tree! I need to find that tree....anyone got seeds and care to share?? I have many neighbors I would love to keep from touching MY gardens flowers! Have them reach through an acacia tree/shrub to get some flowers, and get a nice sharp surprise!! People are helping themselves to my Golden Chalice flowers every night! I go to bed with 12 flowers open,and wake up with 1 left! And they didnt ripen and fall off!! My 3 trees are the Splendidas. No new scales so far,and the leaves are holding on. So...they go in the ground in about a month or less. Got to be sure the bugs are gone first.
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Well I googled cassia surattensis and it looks a heckuva lot like Christmas cassia except it seems more tree-like whereas Christmas cassia (cassia bicapsularis) is multi-trunked. So now I think the new cassia tree just planted in our front yard must be C. surattensis. Seriously it looks exactly like the Christmas cassia in our side yard in all respects except the trunk. How to take care of it? Don't prune except in spring, after bloom season's over. Really care-free. After planting: water deeply every day for the first 2 weeks and then deeply once a week for the next 3 weeks. That means make a well around the bottom and fill it up, wait for it to drain and fill again. Thanks for clueing me in that mine is C. surattensis not C. bicapsularis. I don't think the sulfur b-flies care, they love both of them all day long.
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Cindy, Thanks again for this info. The branch of the cassia that I have seen them on has no sulphur caterpillars but the rest of the bush has them so I though they must be eating the eggs. But actually now that I look that is the only branch without yellow flowers (that the cats like)....maybe because of the sharpshooters that were hanging out there? This cassia in my front yard is the only one out of all of mine that has a lot of caterpillars this year. Something is getting to a lot of the ones in the backyard. I have seen bugs that act (move around the branch hiding) and are shaped similar to this sharpshooter on other plants like my milkweeds-are they all usually bad? Michelle
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mboston_gw
12 years ago
Candlestick, Popcorn, and Christmas Cassia are all favorites here in Florida. There are others that are similiar to the Christmas Cassia that are used as well but I don't know the names of them. I know that the Partridge Pea is around here also and the small sulphurs use my Perennial Peanut groundcover also.
susanlynne48
12 years ago
Both Cloudless Sulphur and Sleepy Oranges use my Senna bicapsularis, a non-native. I used to have Senna hebecarpa, which they also used. It is native to the US, but not Oklahoma. I know they also use Partridge Pea as well, and probably many other Sennas.

Susan
four (9B near 9A)
9 years ago
> something about the C. alata leaves that killed them?

Not about the leaves. Rather ants. They adore Senna (yes) alata, for its extrafloral nectar.

> in Florida.... similiar to the Christmas Cassia... I don't know the names

In S.E. US, all or practically all individuals and businesses that think that they
bought /were given /are selling Senna bicapsularis
instead bought /were given /are selling Senna pendula var. glabrata.
S. bicapsularis has name Christmas "Cassia"[sic].
Thus S. pendula var glabrata also has name Christmas "Cassia"[sic].

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