It grows wild in North, Central, and South America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, and is considered a particularly problematic weed in many places.

The green leaves of the plant are fermented to produce a high-protein food product called kawal which is eaten by many people in Sudan as a meat substitute.

In vitro cultures of S. obtusifolia such as hairy roots may be a source of valuable secondary metabolites with medical applications.

[4][5] In 1979, Howard Samuel Irwin and Rupert Charles Barneby transferred the species to the genus Senna as S. obtusifolia in the Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden.

[24] In its natural environment, it grows on the shores of lakes and rivers, but is also a weed of pastures and roadsides at altitudes up to 1,100 m (3,600 ft).

[7] Senna obtusifolia is non-nodulating and does not have a symbiotic association with soil bacteria, unlike other members of the family Fabaceae.

[26] The materia medica name for the seeds in Chinese is jué míng zǐ (simplified: 决明子; traditional: 決明子).

[34] Kawal, a protein-rich meat substitute eaten in Sudan, is produced by crushing the leaves of the plant into a paste which is then traditionally fermented in an earthenware jar, buried in a cool place.