Senna alexandrinaMill.

Alexandrian sennaEast Indian sennaEgyptian sennaTinnevelly senna

WFO wfo-0000164723 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Senna alexandrina, photographed by Dave U
fig. a Dave U, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-03-30 / obs. 186218704
Senna alexandrina, photographed by Karim Haddad
fig. b Karim Haddad, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 178226781
Senna alexandrina, photographed by Karim Haddad
fig. c Karim Haddad, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 178215823
Senna alexandrina, photographed by Siddarth Machado
fig. d Siddarth Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 61422527
Senna alexandrina, photographed by Dave U
fig. e Dave U, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 186218868
Senna alexandrina, photographed by Karim Haddad
fig. f Karim Haddad, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 178215835
Senna alexandrina, photographed by Siddarth Machado
fig. g Siddarth Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 61422530
Senna alexandrina, photographed by Olivier Argagnon
fig. h Olivier Argagnon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173765259

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 24 botanical countries

Regions where Senna alexandrina is native: Algeria, Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Yemen, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka AlgeriaCentral African RepublicChadDjiboutiEgyptEritreaEthiopiaGulf of Guinea Is.KenyaMaliMauritaniaNigerNigeriaSomaliaSudan-South SudanOmanPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinaiYemenIndiaPakistanSri Lanka
Native distribution of Senna alexandrina, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Djibouti DJI
Egypt EGY
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Kenya KEN
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Socotra SOC
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Oman OMA ASIA-TEMPERATE
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Yemen YEM
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Pakistan PAK
Sri Lanka SRL

Not drawn on the map: Socotra. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 28 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Cassia acutifolia Delile
  • Cassia acutifolia var. eriocarpa Maire
  • Cassia aethiopica Guibourt
  • Cassia alexandrina (Mill.) Spreng.
  • Cassia alexandrina (Garsault) Thell.
  • Cassia angustifolia Vahl
  • Cassia angustifolia M.Vahl
  • Cassia decipiens Desv.
  • Cassia ehrenbergii Bisch.
  • Cassia elongata Lem.-Lis.
  • Cassia forskalii Royle
  • Cassia italica Lam. ex Steud.
  • Cassia lanceolata Forssk.
  • Cassia lanceolata Wight & Arn.
  • Cassia lanceolata Collad.
  • Cassia lenitiva Bisch.
  • Cassia ligustrinoides Schrank
  • Cassia medica Forssk.
  • Cassia medicinalis Bisch.
  • Cassia orientalis Pers.
  • Cassia ovata Mérat & Lens ex Geiger
  • Cassia senna L.
  • Cassia senna var. eriocarpa (Maire) Maire
  • Cassia senna var. obtusata Brenan

and 4 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.