Laburnum anagyroides

Last updated

Laburnum anagyroides
Laburnum anagyroides.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Genus: Laburnum
Species:
L. anagyroides
Binomial name
Laburnum anagyroides
Medik., 1787
Synonyms

Cytisus laburnumL.

Laburnum anagyroides - MHNT Laburnum anagyroides MHNT.BOT.2004.0.269.jpg
Laburnum anagyroides - MHNT

Laburnum anagyroides (syn. Cytisus laburnum), the common laburnum, golden chain or golden rain, is a species of flowering plant in the subfamily Faboideae, and genus Laburnum . Laburnum alpinum is closely related. It is native to Central and Southern Europe.

Contents

The plant grows and flowers in damp and mild habitats, especially in the calcareous soils of Southern Europe.

Description

Detail of the flowers Laburnum anagyroides2.jpg
Detail of the flowers

The plant is a small deciduous tree or large shrub up to 7 metres (23 ft) tall. It has smooth bark, dark green spreading branches and pendulous and pubescent twigs. The leaves are generally trifoliate and oval with long petioles, smooth on the upperside and hairy on the underside. It flowers during May and June. [1]

Laburnum anagyroides blooms in late spring with pea-like, yellow flowers densely packed in pendulous racemes 10–25 cm (4–10 in) long. The flowers are golden yellow, sweet scented, and typically bloom in May.

The seeds are legumes with large numbers of black seeds that contain cytisine, an alkaloid somewhat poisonous to humans as well as goats and horses, especially when not ripe. However, some wild animals such as hares and deer can feed on them without any problems, and because of this the plant is believed to have magic properties in some regions.

Uses

The wood is hard and heavy, of a yellow/brown colour, ideal for making posts, for woodturning and as fuel. In the past (and today on historic re-enactments) it was used for making bows.

The tree is also known as false ebony since the wood from very old specimens could be used in place of ebony.

Cultivation

Laburnum anagyroides is cultivated as an ornamental tree. The most common ornamental plant in the genus is a hybrid between this species and Laburnum alpinum Laburnum × watereri .

In culture

The English poet Francis Thompson described the laburnum in one of his poems:

Mark yonder, how the long laburnum drips
Its jocund spilth of fire, its honey of wild flame!

Francis Thompson, Sister Songs (1895)

The writer J. R. R. Tolkien was inspired by the laburnum for his creation of Laurelin, one of the two mythological trees in The Silmarillion , and Tolkien's description of it is strongly influenced by Thompson's verses. [2]

Related Research Articles

<i>Amelanchier</i> Genus of fruit trees

Amelanchier, also known as shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry, juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum, wild-plum or chuckley pear, is a genus of about 20 species of deciduous-leaved shrubs and small trees in the rose family (Rosaceae).

<i>Liriodendron tulipifera</i> Species of tree

Liriodendron tulipifera—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, lynn-tree, hickory-poplar, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus Liriodendron, and the tallest eastern hardwood. It is native to eastern North America from Southern Ontario and possibly southern Quebec to Illinois eastward to southwestern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and south to central Florida and Louisiana. It can grow to more than 50 m (160 ft) in virgin cove forests of the Appalachian Mountains, often with no limbs until it reaches 25–30 m (80–100 ft) in height, making it a very valuable timber tree. The tallest individual at the present time (2021) is one called the Fork Ridge Tulip Tree at a secret location in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Repeated measurements by laser and tape-drop have shown it to be 191 feet 10 inches (58.47 m) in height. This is the tallest known individual tree in eastern North America.

<i>Cercis</i> Genus of flowering plants in the bean family Fabaceae

Cercis is a genus of about 10 species in the subfamily Cercidoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. native It contains small deciduous trees or large shrubs commonly known as redbuds in the USA. They are characterised by simple, rounded to heart-shaped leaves and pinkish-red flowers borne in the early spring on bare leafless shoots, on both branches and trunk ("cauliflory"). The genus contains ten species, native to warm temperate regions of North America, southern Europe, western and central Asia, and China.

<i>Laburnum</i> Genus of plants

Laburnum, sometimes called golden chain or golden rain, is a genus of two species of small trees in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are Laburnum anagyroidescommon laburnum and Laburnum alpinumalpine laburnum. They are native to the mountains of southern Europe from France to the Balkans.

<i>Jacaranda</i> Genus of trees

Jacaranda is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas while cultivated around the world. The generic name is also used as the common name.

<i>Cercidiphyllum</i> Genus of trees

Cercidiphyllum is a genus containing two species of plants, both commonly called katsura. They are the sole members of the monotypic family Cercidiphyllaceae. The genus is native to Japan and China and unrelated to Cercis (redbuds).

<i>Diospyros virginiana</i> Species of tree

Diospyros virginiana is a persimmon species commonly called the American persimmon, common persimmon, eastern persimmon, simmon, possumwood, possum apples, or sugar plum. It ranges from southern Connecticut to Florida, and west to Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa. The tree grows wild but has been cultivated for its fruit and wood since prehistoric times by Native Americans.

<i>Cassia fistula</i> Species of plant

Cassia fistula, also known as golden shower, purging cassia, Indian laburnum, Kani Konna, or pudding-pipe tree, is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. The species is native to the Indian subcontinent and adjacent regions of Southeast Asia. It is the official state flower of Kerala state in India. It is also a popular ornamental plant and is also used in herbal medicine.

<i>Ceiba speciosa</i> Species of tree

Ceiba speciosa, the floss silk tree, is a species of deciduous tree that is native to the tropical and subtropical forests of South America. It has several local common names, such as palo borracho, or árbol del puente, samu'ũ, or paineira. In Bolivia, it is called toborochi, meaning "tree of refuge" or "sheltering tree". In the USA it often is called the silk floss tree. It belongs to the same family as the baobab; the species Bombax ceiba; and other kapok trees. Another tree of the same genus, Ceiba chodatii, is often referred to by the same common names.

<i>Tilia americana</i> Species of tree

Tilia americana is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to Cherry County, Nebraska. It is the sole representative of its genus in the Western Hemisphere, assuming T. caroliniana is treated as a subspecies or local ecotype of T. americana. Common names include American basswood and American linden.

+ <i>Laburnocytisus</i> Adamii Species of tree

+ Laburnocytisus 'Adamii' is a horticultural curiosity; a small tree which is a graft-chimaera between two species, a laburnum, Laburnum anagyroides, and a broom, Chamaecytisus purpureus, which bears some shoots typical of the one species, some of the other, and some which are a peculiar mixture of both "parents". The plus sign (+) indicates the generic name is made for a graft-chimaera. The plant can also be described by the formula Laburnum anagyroides + Chamaecytisus purpureus.

<i>Acer carpinifolium</i> Species of maple

Acer carpinifolium is a species of maple native to Japan, on the islands of Honshū, Kyūshū, and Shikoku, where it grows in woodlands and alongside streams in mountainous areas.

<i>Prunus cerasoides</i> Species of tree

Prunus cerasoides, commonly known as the wild Himalayan cherry or sour cherry, is a species of deciduous cherry tree in the family Rosaceae. It is found in southern and eastern Asia.

<i>Ceroxylon</i> Genus of palms

Ceroxylon is a genus of flowering plants in the family Arecaceae, native to the Andes in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, known as Andean wax palms.

<i>Laburnum alpinum</i> Species of plant

Laburnum alpinum, the Scotch laburnum, Scottish laburnum or alpine laburnum, is a leguminous, (Leguminosae), deciduous tree.

<i>Telosma cordata</i> Species of flowering plant

Telosma cordata is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae, native to China and Indo-China. It is cultivated elsewhere and may occur wild as an introduced species. Common names include Chinese violet, cowslip creeper, Pakalana vine, Tonkin jasmine and Tonkinese creeper. The plant bears clusters of golden yellow blooms along the vining stems during summer months. Individual blooms emerge successively over a period of weeks emitting a rich, heavy fragrance during the day and night.

<i>Diospyros dichrophylla</i> Species of tree

Diospyros dichrophylla (Gand.) De Winter is a Southern African tree belonging to the ebony family of Ebenaceae and closely related to the Persimmon.

<i>Laburnum <span style="font-style:normal;">×</span> watereri</i> A hybrid species in the family Fabaceae

Laburnum × watereri, is a naturally occurring hybrid species of Laburnum, native to Central Europe. Its parents are common laburnum, Laburnum anagyroides, and alpine laburnum, Laburnum alpinum. A small deciduous tree or large shrub, it is a popular garden plant, called golden chain tree for its spectacular display of hanging clusters of yellow pea-like blossoms. It can be trained to take forms such as arches and espaliers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trees in Middle-earth</span> Trees and forests in the fictional works of J. R. R. Tolkien

Trees play multiple roles in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth, some such as Old Man Willow indeed serving as characters in the plot. Both for Tolkien personally, and in his Middle-earth writings, caring about trees really mattered. Indeed, the Tolkien scholar Matthew Dickerson wrote "It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of trees in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien."

<i>Pachira glabra</i> Species of plant

Pachira glabra is a tropical wetland tree in the mallow family Malvaceae, native to eastern Brazil, where it grows along rivers and other waterways. It is generally known by the nonscientific names Guinea peanut, French peanut, Saba nut, money tree, and lucky tree. It shares many of these common names with Pachira aquatica, the Malabar chestnut, which is quite similar looking, has similar culinary and ornamental uses, and is often confused with P. glabra.

References

  1. Kilbracken, J. 1995. Easy way guide Trees. Larousse. ISBN   0-7523-0027-X
  2. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1993). "The later Quenta Silmarillion". In Christopher Tolkien (ed.). Morgoth's Ring. Fulham: HarperCollinsPublishers. p. 157. ISBN   0-261-10300-8.