Podocytisus caramanicus
Sponsor
Kindly sponsored by
Jonny & Sara Shaw
Credits
Owen Johnson (2024)
Recommended citation
Johnson, O. (2024), 'Podocytisus caramanicus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Common Names
- Dwarf Laburnum
Synonyms
- Cytisus caramanicus (Boiss. & Heldr.) Nyman
- Laburnum caramanicum (Boiss. & Heldr.) Benth. & Hook.f.
- Podocytisus americanus G. Nicholson
Other taxa in genus
Shrub to c. 2 m tall, of straggling erect habit. Twigs green. Leaves grey-green, short-stalked (petiole 3–10 mm), with 3 almost sessile, abruptly acuminate obovate leaflets 5–20 mm long, the central one longest. Racemes terminal in late summer on short, stiff side shoots, erect, 7–18 cm long; flowers held on slender stalks which carry a small bracteole about halfway up, golden yellow, with the standard petal and keel both c. 15– 20 mm. Legumes on long stalks which retain the bracteoles, 2–8 cm long, 1–2 mm wide, oval or deformed, flattened but with a distinctly winged upper seam, containing 1–8 seeds c. 5 mm wide. (Bean 1981; Frodin & Heywood 1968).
Distribution Albania Greece North Macedonia Turkey Anatolia
Habitat Mediterranean maquis and waste places, at lower altitudes.
USDA Hardiness Zone 8
RHS Hardiness Rating H4
Conservation status Not evaluated (NE)
Podocytisus caramanicus is one of those shrubs which, although pretty enough in flower, has attracted next to no interest as a garden plant and which has been little studied even in the wild. (Bean’s description of it as tree-sized in its natural habit (Bean 1981) certainly seems to have been a case of information lost in translation.) The specific epithet means ‘from Karaman’ (in southern Turkey); its distribution extends westwards from this region into the southern Balkan Peninsula. The species reached Britain around 1879 but proved slightly tricky to grow at Kew, where it was cut back each year by the severe winters of the 19th and earlier 20th centuries (Bean 1981); as it flowers on the first-year growths, this did not in itself limit the floral display. Bean’s comment that in the earlier 20th century it was ‘still very uncommon’ seems to imply that he felt it was worth propagating and should become better known in gardens. At this stage the population at Kew was being maintained by cuttings taken in August and given gentle heat (Bean 1981).
This anticipated popularity has yet to materialise. Podocytisus caramanicus was reintroduced to Kew in 1972 from Skopje Botanical Garden in North Macedonia, but this plant was removed in 1989 (T. Freeth pers. comm.) Since then there seems to be no evidence for the species’ cultivation north of its natural range, or not at least in botanic gardens which list their accessions online.