Petteria ramentacea
Sponsor
Kindly sponsored by
Jonny & Sara Shaw
Credits
John Grimshaw (2024)
Recommended citation
Grimshaw, J.M. (2024), 'Petteria ramentacea' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Common Names
- Dalmatian Laburnum
Synonyms
- Cytisus ramentaceus Sieber
- Cytisus weldenii Vis.
- Genista ramentacea (Sieber) Briq.
- Genista weldeniana Scheele
- Laburnum fragrans Griseb.
- Laburnum nubigenum J.Presl
- Laburnum ramentaceum (Sieber) K.Koch
- Laburnum weldenii Griseb. ex Lavallée
Other taxa in genus
A deciduous, tree-like shrub of sturdy habit, 1.8–2(–4) m high. Branches slender, glabrous, but the twigs are lightly hairy when young Leaves trifoliolate, with a slender petiole 1.5–5 cm long; leaflets oval or obovate, very shortly stalked, 2–7 × 1.2–3 cm, entire, rounded at the apex, dull green, glabrous above but with aprsse hairs on the veins below and on the margins. Racemes terminating short twigs of the year, erect, 3.5–7.5 cm in. long, bearing 10–20 flowers; flower-stalks short, hairy. Flowers fragrant, densely arranged, yellow, 1.6– 2 cm long, resembling those of a broom; calyx tubular, downy; standard petal erect, emarginate. Seed-pod 3.5–5 cm long, sharply pointed at the end, glabrous, light to dark brown when ripe, containing five or seven orange-brown seeds. (Heywood 1968, Bean 1981, Polunin 1980).
Distribution Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Greece Kosovo Montenegro
Habitat Coastal maquis and other scrubby habitats, 10–700 m asl.
USDA Hardiness Zone 6-9
RHS Hardiness Rating H5
Conservation status Not evaluated (NE)
A native of the western Balkans from the region of Split (Croatia) southwards, mainly near the coast in maquis vegetation but extending inland into Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and northern and central Albania. Bean noted ‘It can be seen growing on the sides of the beautiful road that climbs from Kotor to Cetinje, the old capital of Montenegro’ (Bean 1976). It was introduced to Britain in 1837 thence to North America, but it has never become common in gardens. It is quite hardy once established and flowers reliably in May and June and ripens seeds which, like those of Laburnum, are poisonous (Bean 1976).
