Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata)

Quick Facts

• Type: wildflower
• Size: 1-3 ft tall
• Sun: full
• Water: low
• Soil: Sandy, well-drained to disturbed soils
• USDA zones: 8-11

Showy yellow flowers with dark anthers bloom summer into fall, followed by flat seed pods.

Host plant for cloudless sulphur and sleepy orange butterflies; an annual that reseeds so well it acts perennial. Fixes nitrogen too.

In the Landscape

Wonderful for wildflower meadows, butterfly gardens, and new plantings that need quick fill while slower perennials establish. Also used as a soil-improving cover crop.

Care & Propagation

Sow it and step back: it asks for sun and lean soil and dislikes rich beds. Being an annual, let the flat pods ripen and pop open to scatter next year's plants. It fixes nitrogen, so it actually improves poor soil for its neighbors.

Direct sow in fall, or in spring after scarifying the hard seed coat (a nick or sandpaper rub) and a short period of cold, moist chilling. An annual that reseeds reliably where seedlings are not crowded out.

Wildlife Value

Larval host for the cloudless sulphur, little yellow, and sleepy orange butterflies; bobwhite quail and songbirds eat the seeds. Curiously, the flowers make no nectar at all — instead, glands on the leaf stalks feed ants, wasps, and butterflies that patrol the plant and eat its pests.

🌱 Fun fact: Its leaves fold up when touched and again at dusk — which is why it is also called the sensitive plant or sleeping plant.

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🌴 In Florida

Host plant for cloudless sulphur and sleepy orange butterflies; an annual that reseeds so well it acts perennial. Fixes nitrogen too.

🌿 Keep exploring

More Florida natives worth meeting:

• Alligator Flag (Thalia geniculata)
• American White Waterlily (Nymphaea odorata)
• Anisescented Goldenrod (Solidago odora)