Maryland Senna (Cassia marilandica)
- Family: Caesalpinia (Caesalpiniaceae)
- Flowering: July-August.
- Field Marks: This Cassia differs from other species with large leaflets by its usually short-hairy fruits and its sessile dark gland on the leaf stalk.
- Habitat: Wet meadows, roadside ditches.
- Habit: Perennial herbs with a thickened root.
- Stems: Upright, branched or unbranched, usually smooth, up to 4 feet tall.
- Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound with 4-10 pairs of leaflets, the leaflets oblong to elliptic, rounded or pointed at the tip, rounded at the base, smooth, up to 2 inches long, up to 1/2 inch wide; leaf stalks bearing a dark, sessile gland near its base.
- Flowers: Several in short, axillary racemes, yellow, up to 1 inch across.
- Sepals: 5, united below into a short tube, up to 1/3 inch across.
- Petals: 5, free from each other, slightly unequal in size, about 1/2 inch long.
- Stamens: 10, but only 7 of them fertile, producing pollen.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, hairy.
- Fruits: Pods slightly curved, smooth or usually short-hairy, up to 4 inches long, up to 1/2 inch wide; seeds thick.
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