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Pictured: Chamaecrista absus — the species. This variety isn’t separately illustrated.
Fabaceae family

Tropical Sensitive Pea (var. meonandra) Chamaecrista absus var. meonandra variety

Tropical Sensitive Pea (var. meonandra) is an introduced annual herb, found in the lower 48 states.

More about this plant

Chamaecrista absus, the pig's senna or tropical sensitive pea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, with a worldwide distribution in the tropics and subtropics. An annual herb reaching 60 cm (24 in), it is a common weed of cultivated and waste places, and its seeds are regularly harvested and sold for use in traditional medicine in Africa and Asia. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 10 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Annual
In the garden
Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~7 caterpillar species

Chamaecrista supports ~7 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a modest genus.

Recorded feeding on Chamaecrista in North America, including:

Adelphia petrella · Adelphia Moth Aristotelia corallina · twirler moth Automeris io · giant silk moth Caristanius decoloralis · Caristanius Moth Caristanius minimus · snout moth Eurema proterpia · Tailed Orange
+ 5 more species →
Fundella pellucens · snout moth Pleuroprucha insulsaria · Common Tan Wave Polyhymno luteostrigella · twirler moth Selenisa sueroides · Pale-Edged Selenisa Stegasta bosqueella · Red-Necked Peanutworm Moth
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (11) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[06] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[08] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[09] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[10] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
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PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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