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Fabaceae family

Retama Prieta Senna polyphylla

Native

Retama Prieta is a perennial tree native to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Tree layer (canopy / understory) — Sits in the tree 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 ~9 caterpillar species

Senna supports ~9 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 Senna in North America, including:

Anabasis ochrodesma · Cassia Webworm Moth Ectomyelois ceratoniae · snout moth Estigmene acrea · Salt Marsh Moth Eurema boisduvalianum · white / sulphur butterfly Eurema nicippe · white / sulphur butterfly Fundella argentina · snout moth
+ 8 more species →
Fundella pellucens · snout moth Orgyia vetusta · Western Tussock Moth Phoebis sennae · Cloudless Sulphur Pyroderces badia · cosmet moth Selenisa sueroides · Pale-Edged Selenisa Strymon melinus · Gray Hairstreak Tortilia viatrix · concealer moth Uresiphita reversalis · Genista Broom 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).
Wildlife & visitors 2 nectaring

Open records of who else uses Retama Prieta — a generalist food-web signal, kept separate from the keystone Ecological Value.

2 adult butterfly & moth species are recorded nectaring at its flowers:

Lampides boeticus · Long-Tailed Blue Euthalia aconthea
Interaction records (observations, not exhaustive) from GloBI → (CC0). Counts are distinct species; names are the most-recorded. Common names from Wikidata (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] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[08] Wildlife & visitors — GloBI — Global Biotic Interactions (CC0)
[09] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[10] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
[11] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county
Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.
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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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