Laburnum anagyroides (4808' N 1623' E)

Description:

2011-04-25 Vienna X. district (on Liesing river, 179 msm Quadrant 7864/3).German name: Gewhnlich-GoldregenID: Fischer & al., Exkursionsflora (2008 3rd)In Austria there are two species of Laburnum plus the hybrid between them; L. alpinum is native to the Southern Alps only, and about the one shown here, L. anagyroides, there exist doubts whether it is native at all (it might be in Pannonian climate of Eastern Austria). The hybrid between them also occurs in natural habitats where both of them are native (which isn't the case in Austria as the assumed natural distribution of them does not overlap - assumed, as the status of L. anagyroides is unclear).Both species, and even more often the hybrid, are very popular for cultivation - and as a consequence both of them plus the hybrid are growing wild in natural habitats, and in some places they've become a truly 'naturalised' part of local flora.Most important distinctive features are (following Fischer & al.):L. anagyroides: short, grey hair (hair apposed to stem and leaves) all over the young growth (stems, underside of leaves); inflorescence less dense, leaving space between individual flowers, and only ~10-30 flowers on a raceme; smaller leavesL. alpinus: only young leaves' undersides hairy (and hair off-standing), older growth and stems with no hair; inflorescence with ~20-40 flowers per raceme, distributed densely along it; bigger leavesHybrid L. watereri (description fits for the 'simple' hybrid; there exist many different cultivar races): intermediate between them: leaves' undersides hairy only on its nerves; inflorescence closer to L. alpinum (dense, many flowers), and usually an abundence of flowersThis specimen here is from a small population on Liesing river (see habitat shot); about native status see there.