Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_senna_occidentalis
Coffee Senna
Senna occidentalis
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About Coffee Senna
An erect herb or woody-based subshrub with pinnate leaves, usually four to five pairs of pointed broadly lanceolate-to-ovate leaflets. A sessile nectary lies at the petiole base. Yellow flowers develop into erect-to-ascending flat linear pods, becoming brown with straw-colored margins. Seeds are dull olive-to-grayish brown. Established wild occurrence warrants observations of occupied cover, reproductive plants and new recruits. These measurements can test persistence and spread. The reviewed accounts do not quantify an island-wide effect on Kauaʻi native vegetation.
Kauaʻi evidence
Generated media is not occurrence evidence. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Senna occidentalis
- Common names
- coffee senna
- Hawaiian names
- miki palaoa
- Other names
- Senna occidentalis · coffee senna · miki palaoa
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Introduced
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-07
- Evidence limits
- Island-level public occurrence only. Keep the gland at the petiole base, distinct from between-leaflet glands in Senna gaudichaudii and S. pendula. Miki palaoa is documented as a Niʻihau name.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Not yet assessed
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Shrub or subshrub; Foetid annual or perennial herb or subshrub, 0.4‒2 m tall, sometimes somewhat woody toward base.
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Occupied area and vegetation cover; Mature plants and new recruits; Reproductive plants and fruiting frequency. Proposed monitoring endpoints are not reported observations, measured effects or causal findings.
- Data gaps
- Current island extent and population trend · Measured local ecological effects
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- An erect herb or woody-based subshrub with pinnate leaves, usually four to five pairs of pointed broadly lanceolate-to-ovate leaflets. A sessile nectary lies at the petiole base. Yellow flowers develop into erect-to-ascending flat linear pods, becoming brown with straw-colored margins. Seeds are dull olive-to-grayish brown. Established wild occurrence warrants observations of occupied cover, reproductive plants and new recruits. These measurements can test persistence and spread. The reviewed accounts do not quantify an island-wide effect on Kauaʻi native vegetation.