Cytisus albus Hacq.

Fully-hardy, dwarf, spreading shrub with downy stems and terminal clusters of white or creamy flowers in spring and summer.  To 3m.  [RHSE, Hortus, Hilliers’].

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘Native of the heaths and woods of the Banate, in Hungary.  Hardy.  Flowers in August.’  [BM t.1438/1812].  There has been nomenclature confusion concerning this plant and related species, particularly Cytisus albus Link., the Portugal White Broom, and the plant figured in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine may be the latter.

Introduced to Britain in 1806.  [PD].

History at Camden Park

Listed only in the 1857 catalogue [T.363/1857].

Notes

The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) relates Cytisus leucanthus Waldst. and Kit. to Chamaecytisus austriacus (L.) Link., synonym Cytisus austriacus L.  Chamaecytisus austriacus has bright yellow flowers, at odds with the specific epithet leucanthus, or white-flowered unless Cytisus albus Hacq. and its forms are considered pale coloured varieties of Cytisus austriacus as suggested by some authors.  As a further complication, Prain, in a discussion of Cytisus albus Link. remarks: ‘In his monograph of the genus, however, Briquet has indicated that the plant described by Haquet, for which in 1803 Waldstein and Kitaibel proposed the name C. leucanthus, under which it was figured at t.1438 of this work, is better treated as referable to C. supinus, Linn.’  [BM t.8693/1917].  

Published Dec 16, 2009 - 05:28 PM | Last updated Jul 21, 2010 - 11:53 AM


Figured are the tri-foliate leaves and terminal racemes of white flowers.  Curtis's Botanical Magazine t.1438, 1812.

Cytisus albus Hacq. | BM t.1438/1812 as Cytisus leucanthus  | BHL

More details about Cytisus albus Hacq.
Family Fabaceae
Category
Region of origin

Central and south eastern Europe

Synonyms
  • Cytisus leucanthus Waldst. and Kit.
  • Chamaecytisus albus (Hacq.) Rothm.
Common Name

White broom

Name in the Camden Park Record

Cytisus leucanthus  

Confidence level medium