Laburnum arch, Bodnant Gardens, Wales

by Neale And Judith Clark

Title

Laburnum arch, Bodnant Gardens, Wales

Artist

Neale And Judith Clark

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Yellow Spring arch - Laburnum arch, Bodnant Gardens, Wales UK GB Europe Springtime cascading blossoms

Laburnum, sometimes called golden chain or golden rain, is a genus of two species of small trees in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are Laburnum anagyroides—common laburnum and Laburnum alpinum—alpine laburnum. They are native to the mountains of southern Europe from France to the Balkans.
The Laburnum trees are deciduous. The leaves are trifoliate, somewhat like a clover; the leaflets are typically 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) long in L. anagyroides and 4–5 cm (1.5–2 in) long in L. alpinum.
They have yellow pea-flowers in pendulous leafless racemes 10–40 cm (4–15.5 in) long in spring, which makes them very popular garden trees. In L. anagyroides, the racemes are 10–20 cm (4–8 in) long, with densely packed flowers; in L. alpinum the racemes are 20–30 cm (8–12 in) long, but with the flowers sparsely along the raceme. The fruit develops as a pod and is extremely poisonous
The yellow flowers are responsible for the old poetic name 'golden chain tree' (also written as golden chaintree or goldenchain tree).
All parts of the plant are poisonous, although mortality is very rare. Symptoms of laburnum poisoning may include intense sleepiness, vomiting, convulsive movements, coma, slight frothing at the mouth and unequally dilated pupils. In some cases, diarrhea is very severe, and at times the convulsions are markedly tetanic. The main toxin in the plant is cytisine, a nicotinic receptor agonist.

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January 30th, 2020

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