Common Name:

sleeping plant, partridge-pea

Synonym(s):

Cassia fasciculata

Genus species:

Chamaecrista fasciculata

Family:

Fabaceae (Leguminosae)

Form:

flower

Size:

to 3 ft tall by 3 ft wide 

Life Span:

annual

Flower Color:

yellow

Fruit Color:

green, brown

Phenology:

seeds germinate in early spring, blooms late spring, finished with reproduction by early fall and reseeds

Noted For:

Recommended Uses:

Sometimes used for erosion control. Good in casual garden settings, especially useful for butterfly gardens, because it's a larval food for so many species of butterflies. It's a legume and tolerates poor soil.

Considerations:

Availability:

Propagation:

Seeds are available through the Florida Wildflowers Growers Cooperative.

Light:

Moisture Tolerance:

Always Flooded------------------------------------------------Extremely Dry

Not wet but not extremely dry ---to--- Very long very dry periods

Salt Water Flooding Tolerance:

Not salt tolerant of inundation by salty or brackish water

Salt Spray/Salty Soil Tolerance:

Some tolerance to salty wind but not direct salt spray

Soil or Other Substrate:

Sand

Soil pH:

Suitable to Grow In:

8A, 8B, 9A, 9B, 10A, 10B

Wildlife:

Birds and other wildlife consume seed which is reported to be particularly important for the bobwhite.

Larval host for cloudless sulfur (Phoebis senna), gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus), orange sulphur (Colias eurytheme), sleepy orange (Abaeis nicippe), little yellow (Eurema lisa) and ceraunus blue (Hemiargus ceraunus) butterflies.

Long-tongued bees are responsible for pollination of the flowers, which includes such visitors as honeybees, bumblebees, long-horned bees (Melissodes spp.), and leaf-cutting bees (Megachile spp.). They are attracted to the food pollen of the purple anthers, and are then dusted by the reproductive pollen of the yellow anthers. Two species of bees, Anthophora walshii and Svastra atripes atripes, are oligoleges of partridge-pea. Sometimes leaf-cutting bees cut off portions of the petals for their brood chambers. The flowers are usually cross-pollinated by insects, but sometimes they are self-pollinating. (Illinois Wildflowers).  

Petiolar nectaries attract  Halictid bees, wasps, flies, and ants). Unusual visitors to the nectaries are velvet ants (Mutillidae), which are hairy wingless femal wasps. (Illinois Wildflowers) 

Bee species documented in Florida include Azcgochlora pura, Augochloropsis inetallica, A. sumnptuosa, Dialictzcs coreopsis, D. miniatulus, Megachile brevis pseudobrevis, M mendica, Bolnbz~s impatiens, and Xylocopa micarzs (Deyrup et al. 2002).

Native Habitats:

Scrub, high pine (sandhill, clayhill), dry flatwoods, dunes, open disturbed areas where seed is available.

Natural Range in Florida:

Visit the USF Libraries Atlas of Florida Plants

Ethnobotany:

Sometimes grown to attract bees (for honey).

General Comments:

Sources disagree on the salt tolerance of this species.