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Pronunciation: SEN-na KOVES-ee-eye
Common name: Coues' senna
Family: Fabaceae (Pea)
Habitat: Dry washes below 2000', creosote bush scrub, Colorado Desert, rare in California
Blooming period: April to June
Name derivations: 1) Senna 2) covesii
NOTE: Coues is pronounced like Cows. The apparent discrepancy between the names Coves and Coues results from the fact that the Romans did not distinguish between 'u' and 'v,' thereby permitting authors when choosing Latin names to use either interchangeably. Some authors apparently had a distaste for long strings of vowels, so 'covesii' may have seemed preferable to 'couesii.' The name Coues may also have been Latinized to Covesius, thus producing 'covesii,' just as Bigelow was Latinized to Bigelovius, thus producing 'bigelovii.'