Laburnum Fabr. Laburnum anagyroides, Medicus

8. Laburnum Fabr. View in CoL 1

Trees or shrubs. Leaves 3-foliolate. Flowers in simple, axillary or pseudoterminal, leafless racemes, pendent at anthesis. Calyx campanulate, slightly bilabiate, the lips undivided or shortly toothed; corolla yellow; stamens monadelphous. Legume slightly constricted between the seeds, dehiscent. Seeds numerous, estrophiolate, compressed.

Twigs appressed-pubescent, greyish-green; legume appressedpubescent, later ± glabrous 1. anagyroides Twigs glabrescent, green; legume glabrous 2. alpinum

1. L. anagyroides Medicus View in CoL , Vorl. Churpf. Phys.-Ökon. Ges. 2: 363 (1787)

(L. vulgare J. Presi , Cytisus laburnum L. ).

Shrub or small tree up to 7 m. Twigs greyish-green, appressed-pubescent. Leaflets 3-8 cm, elliptical to elliptic-obovate, usually obtuse and shortly mucronate, greyish-green, appressed-pubescent beneath when young. Racemes 10-30 cm, lax. Corolla c. 2 cm, goldenyellow. Legume 4-6 cm, appressed-pubescent when young, subglabrous at maturity; upper suture unwinged. Seeds black. Woods and scrub. Mountains o f S.C. Europe and Italy, extending to E. France and W. Jugoslavia. Frequently cultivatedfor ornament and sometimes naturalized. Au Cz G a Ge He Hu It Ju Rm [Br Co Hb].

Often divided on the basis of small differences in the calyx, corolla and inflorescence into geographical variants treated as subspecies, but many transitions occur between them.