Colutea arborescens

Bladder senna

Family: Fabaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Bladder senna is a naturalized shrub found in northern Sierra Nevada Foothills and southern Great Basin in woodland and disturbed areas at elevations below 1,600 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces distinctive yellow flowers with dark markings approximately 1.5 to 2 centimeters long. Growing as a rounded deciduous shrub less than 3 meters tall with many branching stems, it develops a spreading, multi-stemmed form. Its compound leaves feature 9 to 13 elliptic leaflets, each 1.5 to 3 centimeters long and sparsely hairy. The plant produces unique bladder-like fruits 2 to 3 centimeters long with a distinctive stalk-like base.

Habitat: Uncommon. Roadsides, woodland, disturbed areas

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: < 1600 m

Bioregions: n SNF, SnGb

California counties: Los Angeles, Siskiyou, Alameda, Butte, Yolo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.