Editing Colutea (section)

==Cultivation and uses==
''Colutea arborescens'', is in general cultivation in the [[United Kingdom|UK]]. It was imported early, before 1568, probably for medicinal purposes,<ref>Alice M. Coats, ''Garden Shrubs and Their Histories'' (1964) 1992, ''s.v.'' "Colutea'.</ref> 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,<ref>Ann Leighton, ''American Gardens in the 18th Century: 'For Use or For Delight' ''(1976:477, "Senna: ''Colutea arborescens''"</ref> in US gardens, it is little more than a marginal curiosity.<ref>"In America, Colutea is not generally grown as an ornamental plant", is the succinct note of John L. Creech in Coats 1992; "actually a weed shrub...  its only desirable quality is its apparent ease to grow in almost anysoli", remarks [[Donald Wyman]], ''Wyman's Gardening Encyclopedia'', ''s.v.'' "Colutea".</ref>

''Colutea arborescens'' will grow in poor sandy [[soils]] in preference to heavy or [[loam]]y soils. It has become naturalised in the UK, where it established itself in the sharp drainage of railway embankments.<ref>Noted by Coats (1964) 1992.</ref>  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 (biology)|hybrid]] ''Colutea × media'' (''C. arborescens'' × ''[[Colutea orientalis|C. orientalis]]'') is also cultivated for its coppery flowers.

''Colutea'' species are used as food plants by the [[larva]]e of some [[Lepidoptera]] species including ''[[Coleophora|Coleophora colutella]]''. The [[Bedouin|Bedouins]] of the Sinai and [[Negev]] would, in times of scarcity, eat the seeds of ''Colutea istria''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bailey|first1=Clinton|last2=Danin|first2=Avinoam |title=Bedouin Plant Utilization in Sinai and the Negev |journal=Economic Botany |volume=35 |issue=2 |page=154 |publisher=Springer on behalf of New York Botanical Garden Press |jstor=4254272|date=1981|doi=10.1007/BF02858682 |bibcode=1981EcBot..35..145B }}</ref>