Crotalaria agatiflora (Canary Bird Bush)

Native from Ethiopia through eastern tropical Africa, this plant is an evergreen shrub or small tree. Its gray-green leaves divide into three oval leaflets, usually carried on a stalk longer than the leaflets themselves. Long flowering clusters bear large lemon-yellow to yellow-green flowers with a broad, reflexed banner and a projecting keel tipped with green or purple. The distinctive flower shape accounts for the bird-related common name. Smooth, inflated pods contain numerous seeds that become loose and rattle when dry. Grown as an ornamental, the species has escaped cultivation and become invasive in parts of South Africa and Australia. Photographed in Bogotá, Colombia.