Christmas-candle

Senna alata, commonly known as Christmas candle, candle bush, candelabra bush, ringworm bush or akapulko, is a robust shrub or small tree in the family Fabaceae native to tropical America and now widely naturalised throughout the tropics. It typically grows 2 to 5 metres tall with stout, sparsely branched stems. The large pinnately compound leaves are 30 to 60 centimetres long with 8 to 20 pairs of broad oblong leaflets that fold together at night. The species is most distinctive in flower, producing erect, bright golden-yellow terminal racemes 30 to 70 centimetres tall resembling thick yellow candles, with the buds enclosed in orange-yellow bracts that drop as each flower opens. The fruits are straight, four-winged, dark brown pods 10 to 20 centimetres long containing many flat triangular seeds. It grows quickly in disturbed ground, roadsides, pastures and humid lowland areas, and is commonly cultivated as an ornamental and medicinal plant in tropical gardens around the world.