General: Desert Senna (Senna armata) is an upright shrub with long, smooth, gray-green, naked stems. During spring, look for compound leaves with a long central axis and three pairs of tiny leaflets. The yellow flowers are big and showy, and the beanpods are 2-3 inches long.

Desert Senna is an uncommon component of shrub communities on sandy and gravelly soils in washes and flats in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Around Las Vegas, look for Desert Senna in desert scrub communities around Boulder City and areas south, such as in the Mojave National Preserve.

Family: Legume (Fabaceae).