Notice

Colin Mills, compiler of the Hortus Camdenensis, died in late November 2012 after a short illness. As he always considered the Hortus his legacy, it is his family's intention to keep the site running in perpetuity. It will not, however, be updated in the near future.

Cytisus villosus Pourr.

Frost-tender, low, spineless shrub with soft spreading hairs, trifoliate leaves and yellow flowers, borne in groups of three from the leaf axils in spring.  To 1.2m.  [RHSD, Hortus].

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘Now that attention is being directed to the introduction of hardy flowering kinds into our hitherto too monotonous backgrounds and borders of shrubs, it is to be expected that the Cytisi will take a prominent place, and for this purpose none is better worth culture than the subject of the present plate, which is hardly known except in the gardens of the curious.  It is a native of a wide extent of country in South Europe, from southern Switzerland and Italy to Greece, Bosnia and Bithynia.  Anatolia is its eastern limit, whilst its western is the Alps of Dauphine.  Mr. Moggridge, in his “Flora of Mentone,” says that it is one of the rarest leguminous plants of that district, occurring only on sandstone rocks in the Turin Valley.  It must not be confounded with the C. hirsutus of the ” Flora Graeca,” which is C. spinescens, Sieber.  According to “Hortus Kewensis,” it was cultivated by Mr. Philip Miller at Chelsea in 1739.’  [BM t.6819/1885].

Cultivated in England since 1640.  [PD].  Don.

History at Camden Park

Listed only in 1857 catalogue [T.371/1857].

Notes

Published Dec 17, 2009 - 02:43 PM | Last updated Jul 21, 2010 - 11:53 AM

Shown are trifoliate leaves and yellow flowers, in groups of three in the leaf axils.  Curtis's Botanical Magazine t.6819, 1885.

Cytisus villosus Pourr. | BM t.6819/1885 | BHL

Family Fabaceae
Category
Region of origin

Northern Mediterranean

Synonyms
  • Cytisus triflorus L’Her.
  • Cytisus hirsutus Bubani 
Common Name

Three-flowered broom

Name in the Camden Park Record

Cytisus triflorus

Confidence level high