Plants erect, sometimes weakly woody, herbs 0.2-2 m tall. Leaves 10-25 cm long, with a large, squat, ovoid or sessile gland near the base of the petiole; leaflets (3-)4-5(-6) pairs, lanceolate to ovate-elliptic, (2.5)-5-12 cm long, (1.5)2-4 cm wide, lower surfaces with inconspicuous scattered glands, upper surfaces glabrous, margins ciliolate. Racemes located in upper axils, very short, almost umbellate; peduncles 3-5(-8) mm long; bracts acute. Sepals obtuse; petals yellow, obovate, 0.9-1.5 cm long; stamens 10, 3 large, 4 medium-sized, 3 short. Pods linear, usually slightly upcurved, (5-)8-13 cm long, 0.5-1 cm wide, not or tardily dehiscent, subglabrous, transversly septat; seeds many, transversly arrranged, grey-broan, ovate-circular, compressed, 4.5-5 mm long, 3.75-4.5 mm wide, minutely pimpled; areoles on each surface, elliptic.
Senna occidentalis is a weed of cultivation, roadsides, and wast places, It also grows in weooded grassland and near pools or streams from seal level to 1400 m. It is pantropical in its distribution but possibly American in origin. It has been collected in regions N1 and S1-3 of the Flora of Somalia.