Pass the Popcorn Please

The Popcorn Cassia/Senna that is. This plant is blooming in my front yard along with quite a few other flowering shrubs. "Ha!...We laugh at Winter!" say they. Our climate is so screwed up that these plants still think that it's Fall. Butterflies, Bees, and Birds love the Popcorn Cassia, sometimes called Senna. They bloom, normally, from Spring through Fall, their dark, plump buds burst forth with 6-12 inch tall spikes of bright yellow flowerers that look a whole lot like popcorn. And, as if that weren't enough, it's flowers and leaves when rubbed or crushed smell, to me anyway, like freshly popped corn. Some folks say they smell a peanut butter scent and others say that it smells a lot like a wet dog! So go figure! Supposedly, extracts from this shrub are used as a larvicide...to kill mosquitos. Come to think of it...I don't recall seeing the little Blood Suckers around my Cassias. Hmmmm...

Hope this brightens your day... my friends in Crazy Cold locales. :)
A Happy and Peaceful New Year to You and Yours!