These golden flowering bushes embrace aromatic, drought-tolerant varieties on your backyard – Orange County Register

Among the many most good of flowering bushes are these within the Fabaceae, or legume, household of crops. Think about, for instance,  a tree with lengthy golden chains of five-petaled flowers, so profuse that they fully obscure the tree’s foliage. This species is appropriately named golden bathe tree or laburnum of India (Cassia fistula) and can remind you of true laburnum, the tree that’s classically related to lengthy chains of yellow flowers.  

All through Southeast Asia, the golden bathe tree is revered each for its magnificence and for its medicinal properties in combating a big number of illnesses, from colds to abdomen illnesses to pores and skin problems. The nationwide flower of Thailand is the one which hangs from it in lavish pendant clusters. As members of the legume household, the seeds of each golden bathe and true laburnum are contained in elongated pods. Nevertheless, true laburnum is native to the chilly winter local weather of the French Alps and can merely not flower in Southern California. 

Golden bathe tree, nevertheless, is well-suited to our local weather so it’s a thriller why you seldom see it right here. And there may be one other gorgeous leguminous tree in gold, additionally unusually absent from our gardens. It’s known as copperpod (Peltophorum pterocarpum) as a result of colour of its pods, whereas its total kind, foliage, and flowering season correspond to these of the jacaranda. Each golden bathe and copperpod are medium-sized bushes, 30-40 ft tall, and hardy to 25 levels Fahrenheit so they need to make it by Southern California winters simply high quality.  

You’ll be able to find seeds of each golden bathe tree and copperpod on eBay which, I need to say, seems to supply by its distributors the widest number of unique seeds wherever on the Web.

The process for germination of seeds from leguminous bushes is similar for all species. These seeds usually have exhausting seed coats on account of their drought tolerance, giving them the power to outlive a few years of drought with out lack of vitality till rain lastly comes.  Leguminous tree seeds may additionally comprise chemical compounds that stop germination till, when seeds are lastly submerged in water after a soaking rain, these chemical compounds are diluted or leached out.  Subsequently, it is best to first soften the coats and take away these chemical compounds by plunging the seeds in water that has simply been boiled. Cowl the container and hold the seeds within the cooling water for twenty-four hours. Though seeds of some leguminous tree species will germinate with out pre-soaking. it has been demonstrated that pre-soaking will increase the share of seeds that sprout. Particularly exhausting seed coats of sure leguminous seeds will must be scarified with a pointy object as a way to open sufficient to soak up water and germinate by the opening.

Earlier than leaving leguminous bushes with golden flowers, two others are worthy of particular point out. One among them is gold medallion tree (Cassia leptophylla). In my neighborhood, its annual opulent summer time show bought me serious about its Latin title. Upon investigation, I realized that Cassia is derived from ke’tzia, which was one of many 11 spices used within the incense combination that, in historical instances, was burned twice a day within the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Based on most opinions, ke’tzia had a cinnamon perfume. It contributed to a perfumed combination so purifying that it banished detrimental ideas from all who inhaled its perfume. Certain sufficient, the Latin title for cinnamon is Cinnamomum cassia. The bark of the gold medallion tree, though with out perfume, does bear some resemblance to the bark of the cinnamon tree which is used within the manufacture of the spice that bears its title. Due to its drought tolerance, gold medallion tree is used for reforestation of pure landscapes in arid zones which were destroyed by fireplace or rendered barren on account of overgrazing by animal herds.

Popcorn cassia (Cassia didymobotrya) has leaves that odor like buttered popcorn. Flowers are golden torches, born on a shrub-like tree which will develop as much as eight ft tall. Flower buds are black and current a shocking distinction to the golden blooms that emerge from them throughout summer time and fall. You’ll be able to procure popcorn cassia by mail order from Annie’s Annuals (anniesannuals.com). 

And now we come to mimosa (Albizia julibrissin), a legendary leguminous magnificence. Mimosa (mi-MOH-sa) is a tree that appears prefer it sounds. It possesses high quality, bipinnate foliage and delicate pink shuttlecock flowers. Mimosa, with its susurrating closing syllable, suggests a whispering softness and, on account of its downy, feathery flowers, one among its widespread names is silk tree.

This tree has a singular development behavior. Usually talking, bushes with a mature peak of 20 to 30 ft are usually not notably fast-growing. The mimosa tree, nevertheless, regardless of being of such average stature, reaches its most peak in only a few years. Alas, the mimosa, within the method of different leguminous bushes reminiscent of acacias, mesquites, cassias, and sennas just isn’t recognized for longevity. Through the two to a few a long time of its life, nevertheless, you’ll take pleasure in its annual flower show and classy parasol kind. Though mimosa has confirmed to be invasive in wetter climates, it doesn’t pose a risk to wilderness habitats in Southern California and the Southwest. It needs to be famous {that a} cultivar with bronze foliage, referred to as ‘Summer time Chocolate,’ can be accessible.

The origin of the phrase mimosa has nothing to do with the mimosa tree. As an alternative, it’s derived from a creeping tropical legume – generally accessible as an indoor plant – referred to as Mimosa pudica or delicate plant. The individuality of this delicate plant is in its leaves, which fold up when touched. It was given the title Mimosa as a result of its foliar folding was thought to mime or mimic the motion of animals in response to stimuli. The foliage of the mimosa tree, whereas it doesn’t fold in response to the touch, is analogous in look to that of the delicate plant.

California native of the week: The flowers of Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa) appear to be small, single-layered white roses. This makes full sense for the reason that species is a member of the rose household. However then a outstanding transformation takes place as every rose turns into a set of ethereal, feathery pink wisps that function seed dispersal brokers. As soon as established, apache plume could make do with little, if any, summer time water and might tolerate each mild shade and imperfect soil drainage. Though normally planted as an accent shrub,  it could attain six ft in peak and, planted in a row, may function a low hedge or casual display screen. Though deciduous, it makes up for its downtime by blooming for 2 months or extra in spring and summer time. Apache plume is offered in one-gallon containers at Tree of Life Nursery (californianaativeplants.com) in San Juan Capistrano, whereas packets of its seeds — which germinate readily when fall-planted — are to be discovered on the Theodore Payne Nursery (theodorepayne.org) in Solar Valley.

Please ship questions, feedback and gardening feedback to joshua@perfectplants.com.