0251 



LABURNUM 



Family: LEGUMINOSAE. 



Reproductive system: DlADELPHY, DECANDRY. 



The Alpine laburnum, Cytisus laburnum, Linn. [Translator's note: now 

 Laburnum alpinum or Cytisus alpinus] is a large tree whose beautiful clusters of yellow 

 flowers adorn our parks and large gardens at the beginning of May. The trunk grows four 

 or five meters high; it is uniform and slightly greenish. The branches are long and 

 pendent. The compound leaves have three leaflets, oval-oblong, hairy underneath, on 

 long petioles. The pendent flowers are located at the ends of the branches; they turn into 

 slightly hairy pods. A cultivated variety has smooth leaves and pods; its branches are 

 firmer and are not pendent. 



FLOWERS: May and June. 



RANGE: Rocky regions of the Basses- Alpes and the Jura, the hills of Burgundy 

 and Bresse. 



NOMENCLATURE. Cytisus, a name given by the ancients to a tree that doesn't 

 belong to this genus. Colloquial French, / 'aubours, lefaux ebenier, le cytise a grappes 

 [Translator's note: laburnum, false ebony, clustering cytisus]. German, der bohnenbaum, 

 der linsenbaum. Portuguese, codego dos Alpes. 



The sessile-leafed cytisus, Cytisus sessilifolius, Linn., is a shrub a meter or two 

 high. It is upright, densely branched, and completely smooth. The leaves consist of three 

 rounded leaflets that end in a point. They are sessile on the upper branches. The yellow 

 flowers, three to five together, are on peduncles at the ends of the branches. The calyx at 

 its base has a floral leaf consisting of two or three leaflets. The fruit is a smooth oblong 

 pod containing five to seven blackish seeds. 



FLOWERS: May and June. 



RANGE: Provence and Languedoc, near Montpellier. 



NOMENCLATURE. Colloquial French, le trifolium des jardiniers [Translator's 

 note: the gardener's trifolium]. German, der garten-cytisus. English, the common cytisus. 



