cassia

[Anne Kilmer]

There are a number of varieties of Cassia available in Florida
nurseries; some native; some listed as invasive exotics. 
	Cassia bicapsularis is commonly planted by butterfly gardeners (we have
thousands of the latter) because it is larval host to the cloudless
sulphur, orange-barred sulphur and rambling (sleepy) orange. 
	I imagine the Cassius blue also uses its flowers ... although the
larvae are so small that I only know one butterflier who finds them. 
A wonderful plant, but I suspect it is listed as invasive. I certainly
see it everywhere in the woods ... where it should not be. 
	I grow it myself, although I did remove my large shrub, consumed with
guilt and a desire for that elusive moral high ground. I have since
recovered, but the seedlings are still too small to do much for me, or
the butterflies. 
	It's gorgeous. Great panicles of lush flowers. 
The key cassia, which I'm trying to persuade people to plant instead, is
much less showy. 
	My concern is not that the plant will escape Ted's careful hands, but
that insects from my yard or house, notably the white-footed ant, scale,
mealy bugs, aphids etc. might ride along in the package.
	This is also the USDA's concern, which is why you need a permit to ship
plants (or bugs) across state lines.
	I like these laws, and I obey them.
	It sounds to me as if Ted can feed his caterpillars other plants. And,
if those caterpillars die all because of me, they'll have to wait in
line behind a lot of mosquitoes, cockroaches and ants to revenge
themselves in the Next World. 
	I shall now have to go eat a lot of chocolate to console myself for
these feelings of guilt, and it's all Ted's fault. 
Cheers
Anne Kilmer
South Florida   
Liz Day wrote:
> 
> > >     Failing that, see if your local nursery can arrange a shipment for you
> > > from a Florida nursery ... Cassia bicapsularis should be easy to find,
> 
> Anne, what is Cassia USED for?  Is it an ornamental?  The C. I'm familiar
> with is a prairie plant in the Midwest, yellow flowers, looks like vetch,
> no human interest I'm aware of other than as a prairie flower.  I mean
> nobody grows it or anything.  And the 4 species of Cassia listed in my
> wildflower guide, none of them are bicapsularis.  What is this plant?
> It's not the same as the "sensitive plant" we all had to look at in
> biology - that was a mimosa... or was it?
> 
> cassiaconfused,
> 
> Liz Day
> LDAY at iquest.net
> Indianapolis, Indiana, central USA - 40 N latitude, zone 5b.
> www.iquest.net/~lday