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Cytisus austriacus L.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Cytisus austriacus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cytisus/cytisus-austriacus/). Accessed 2024-09-16.

Genus

Synonyms

  • C. supinus subsp. austriacus . (L.) Briq.
  • Chamaecytisus austriacus (L.) Link

Glossary

appressed
Lying flat against an object.
variety
(var.) Taxonomic rank (varietas) grouping variants of a species with relatively minor differentiation in a few characters but occurring as recognisable populations. Often loosely used for rare minor variants more usefully ranked as forms.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Cytisus austriacus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cytisus/cytisus-austriacus/). Accessed 2024-09-16.

A species closely related to C. supinus, from which it differs in having the hairs of the stems, leaves and pods appressed; it is of more restricted range, occurring from Czechoslovakia and Hungary eastward to the Caucasus, while C. supinus extends westward as far as the Atlantic. It is usually represented in gardens by the following variety, which differs from the type in little but its more slender stems and narrower leaflets:

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

† C pygmaeus Willd. Chamaecytisus pygmaeus (Willd.) Rothm. – A low, spreading shrub, ultimately a yard or so wide, but no more than about 6 in. high. This is the main distinction between it and C. austriacus, which (like its var. heufellii) has erect branches. The leaflets are smaller, and the flowers up to five in a cluster. Perhaps only a variety of C. austriacus. It is a native of the eastern Balkans and Anatolia, in cultivation from seeds collected in the latter area by Cheese, Mitchell and Watson in 1967 (Bull. Alp. Gard. Soc., Vol. 42 (1974), p. 274, ill. p. 272).

var. heuffelii (Griseb. & Schenk) Schneid.

Synonyms
C. heuffelii Griseb. & Schenk
Chamaecytisus heuffelii (Griseb. & Schenk) Rothm

A low, deciduous shrub with slender, erect, or arching branches covered with greyish appressed hairs. Leaves trifoliolate, with stalks {1/3} in. long; leaflets {1/2} to {3/4} in. long, {1/8} in. or less wide; linear oblong or linear obovate, covered with flattened hairs beneath; ultimately glabrous above. Flowers borne on the shoots of the year in a close terminal head, each {3/4} in. long, with narrow, yellow petals, and a very hairy calyx which extends two-thirds the length of the flower. Pod 1 in. long, {3/16} in. wide, covered with silky greyish hairs, and containing four to eight seeds.Native of the Balkan peninsula and Danube basin. It has much the same garden value as C. supinus and should be pruned in the same manner.Typical C. austriacus differs from the above in the following particulars: habit often procumbent; leaflets usually permanently hairy above; hairs of calyx spreading (appressed in var. heuffelii).

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