Fine-leaved crown

Appearance

Shrub up to 2 m. Stems green, easily crushed, with long internodes. Deciduous leaves, with foliaceous rachis, imparipinnate, with 2-3 pairs of leaflets. The flowers are grouped in number from 2 to 6, yellow, the group of flowers supported by peduncles longer than the leaves. Legume fruit with little marked constrictions. It blooms in spring and summer.

Naming

Its scientific name means "juncal crown" (from the Latin iuncus: reed), due to its graceful and naked stems that motivated Jean Bauhin (1541-1612) to name it in other times Colutea caule genistae fungus (spongy-stemmed scarecrows like genista).

Distribution

In much of the Mediterranean, especially in the western area. In the east, center and south of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in the Balearic Islands (Mallorca and Menorca).

Habitat

On rocky and sandy soils. On dry and sunny thickets, mainly in limestone terrain, from sea level to about 800 m altitude.