Flor de san jose

Senna atomaria (L.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby (Fabaceae), known as flor de san josé, palo de zorrillo or stinking cassia, is a small to medium deciduous tree of seasonally dry tropical forests from southern Mexico and the Caribbean through Central America to northern South America. Plants reach 5-12 m tall, with smooth grey bark and a spreading, open crown that flushes leaves and flowers at the start of the rains. The alternate, paripinnate leaves bear 3-8 pairs of opposite, ovate to elliptic leaflets 3-8 cm long with rounded apices; the foliage emits a fetid odour when crushed, giving rise to the local name 'palo de zorrillo' (skunk tree). Showy terminal racemes carry numerous bright yellow, slightly asymmetric, five-petalled flowers about 3 cm across. The flattened, dark brown, indehiscent pod is 10-25 cm long and 1.5-2 cm wide, containing many transversely arranged seeds embedded in pulp. It grows on rocky limestone slopes, savannas and open dry forest.