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Home / Browse / Chamaecrista / Swartz's Jamaican Broom (var. swartzii)
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Fabaceae family

Swartz's Jamaican Broom (var. swartzii) Chamaecrista glandulosa var. swartzii variety

Native

Swartz's Jamaican Broom (var. swartzii) is a perennial shrub native to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

More about this plant

Chamaecrista glandulosa is a species of flowering plant in the legume family native to the Americas. Its distribution extends from Mexico to Brazil and it occurs on many Caribbean islands. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Shrub layer — Sits in the shrub 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 — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[07] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[08] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[10] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[11] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
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