Editing Colutea

{{Short description|Genus of legumes}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| name = ''Colutea''
| image = Colutea orientalis - Feuillage.jpg
| image_caption = ''[[Colutea orientalis]]''
| display_parents = 2
| taxon = Colutea
| authority = [[Carl Linnaeus|L.]] (1753)
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision = [[#Species|See text]].
| synonyms = 
*''Baguenaudiera'' {{small|Bubani (1899)}}
*''Oreophysa'' {{small|(Bunge ex Boiss.) Bornm. (1905)}}
|synonyms_ref = <ref name = powo>[https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:22065-1 ''Colutea'' L.] ''[[Plants of the World Online]]''. Retrieved 1 August 2023.</ref>
}}

'''''Colutea''''' is a [[genus]] of about 28 [[species]] of [[deciduous]] flowering [[shrubs]] in the [[Fabaceae|legume family Fabaceae]], growing from 2–5 m tall, native to southern [[Europe]], north [[Africa]] and southwest [[Asia]]. The [[leaf|leaves]] are [[pinnate]] and light green to glaucous grey-green. The [[flower]]s are yellow to orange, pea-shaped and produced in [[racemes]] throughout the summer. These are followed by the attractive inflated seed pods which change from pale green to red or copper in colour.

''[[Colutea arborescens]]'', known as '''bladder senna'''—[[John Gerard]] cautioned, however, that they are not [[Senna (plant)|true senna]], "though we have followed others in giving it to name Bastard Sena<!--Sena in original-->, which name is very unproper {{sic}} to it"—is indigenous to the [[Mediterranean]]; it has yellow flowers. It has a height and spread of up to 5 m. Other species include ''[[Colutea orientalis]]'', with grey leaves and coppery flowers.

==Species==
{{As of|2023|April}}, [[Plants of the World Online]] accepted the following species:<ref name="POWO_22065-1">{{cite web |title=''Colutea'' L.. |work=Plants of the World Online |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew|url=http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:22065-1 |access-date=2023-04-29 }}</ref>
*''[[Colutea abyssinica]]'' <small>Kunth & C.D.Bouché</small>
*''[[Colutea acutifolia]]'' <small>Shap.</small>
*''[[Colutea afghanica]]'' <small>Browicz</small>
*''[[Colutea arborescens]]'' <small>L.</small>
*''[[Colutea armata]]'' <small>Hemsl. & Lace</small>
*''[[Colutea armena]]'' <small>Boiss. & A.Huet</small>
*''[[Colutea atabajevii]]'' <small>B.Fedtsch.</small>
*''[[Colutea atlantica]]'' <small>Browicz</small>
*''[[Colutea brachyptera]]'' <small>Sumnev.</small>
*''[[Colutea brevialata]]'' <small>Lange</small>
*''[[Colutea buhsei]]'' <small>(Boiss.) Shap.</small>
*''[[Colutea cilicica]]'' <small>Boiss. & Balansa</small>
*''[[Colutea delavayi]]'' <small>Franch.</small>
*''[[Colutea gifana]]'' <small>Parsa</small>
*''[[Colutea gracilis]]'' <small>Freyn & Sint.</small>
*''[[Colutea insularis]]'' <small>Browicz</small>
*''[[Colutea istria]]'' <small>Mill.</small>
*''[[Colutea jamnolenkoi]]'' <small>Shap.</small>
*''[[Colutea komarovii]]'' <small>Takht.</small>
*''[[Colutea melanocalyx]]'' <small>Boiss. & Heldr.</small>
*''[[Colutea multiflora]]'' <small>Shap. ex Ali</small>
*''[[Colutea nepalensis]]'' <small>Sims</small>
*''[[Colutea orientalis]]'' <small>Mill.</small>
*''[[Colutea paulsenii]]'' <small>Freyn</small>
*''[[Colutea persica]]'' <small>Boiss.</small>
*''[[Colutea porphyrogramma]]'' <small>Rech.f.</small>
*''[[Colutea triphylla]]'' <small>Bunge ex Boiss.</small>
*''[[Colutea uniflora]]'' <small>Beck ex Stapf</small>
*[[Colutea × variabilis|''Colutea'' × ''variabilis'']] <small>Browicz</small>

==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>

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
*''The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening'' ed. A. Huxley, 1992.

{{Wikispecies}}
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[[Category:Galegeae]]
[[Category:Fabaceae genera]]
[[Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus]]


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