Australian Senna

Sun or partial shade. Evergreen, with soft needle-like or skeleton-leaf foliage. It prefers dry, well-drained sites. Small, buttercup-yellow flowers cover plants from winter to spring, especially in sun. Eventually plants become somewhat twiggy.

A showy Australian native, Desert cassia is a fairly recent introduction to local horticulture; it is a bit early to judge how it will behave in south-central Texas over the long term, but it survived 18 degrees at the Botanical Garden in San Antonio.

Several types are seen in cultivation, including a version with pale, blunt-tipped silver leaves.