Podocytisus
Sponsor
Kindly sponsored by
Jonny & Sara Shaw
Credits
Owen Johnson (2024)
Recommended citation
Johnson, O. (2024), 'Podocytisus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Family
- Fabaceae
Common Names
- Dwarf Laburnum
One species, most resembling Cytisus but with some features of Laburnum. Leaves alternate, trifoliate, entire, the leaflets less than 2 cm long. Flowers yellow, typical of the Fabaceae in structure, carried in erect terminal racemes in late summer. Legume irregularly oval, with a long stalk and a broadly winged upper suture, seldom splitting open when ripe. (Bean 1981; Bentham & Hooker 1865).
The single species has been treated by a few authors, including W.J. Bean (Bean 1981), as a third member of the genus Laburnum. Its general appearance – as a straggling small-leaved shrub with stiff green stems and erect flowerheads – is much more likely to remind the viewer of a broom (Cytisus).