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Colutea
Also called Bladder Sennas
Colutea is a genus of about 28 deciduous shrubs in the pea family, native to southern Europe, north Africa and southwest Asia, grown mainly for its inflated seed pods. The most commonly grown member is Colutea arborescens, which thrives in poor, sandy, free-draining soil.
Colutea is a genus of about 28 species of deciduous flowering shrubs in the legume family, Fabaceae, growing from 2–5 metres (6+1⁄2–16+1⁄2 ft) tall and native to the Old World. They are sometimes called bladder sennas, although they are not particularly closely related to the true sennas.
Colutea arborescens, is in general cultivation in the UK. It was imported early, before 1568, probably for medicinal purposes, but now is grown mostly for its attractive seed pods, used in dried arrangements. Though in Virginia Thomas Jefferson had it and it appears in Lady Jean Skipwith's lists of plants, in US gardens, it is little more than a marginal curiosity.
Colutea arborescens will grow in poor sandy soils in preference to heavy or loamy soils. It has become naturalised in the UK, where it established itself in the sharp drainage of railway embankments. It is easy to propagate from seed. It is generally pest resistant, though garden snails will climb up the plant in wet weather to eat the leaves. The hybrid Colutea × media (C. arborescens × C. orientalis) is also cultivated for its coppery flowers.
The genus is native to southern Europe, north Africa and southwest Asia.
The Bedouins of the Sinai and Negev would, in times of scarcity, eat the seeds of C. istria.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Colutea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
