Woody Peas & Beans
What are they?
This is a rather varied group of plants that are drawn together by being pink or white-flowered members of the pea family that are perennial and have woody stems. The group includes true trees with obvious trunks, down to creeping subshrubs whose woody bases may be difficult to discern without close scrutiny. Plants in the latter group may appear not to have woody bases and are therefore also included on other pages covering pink-flowered peas.
Where are they found?
The varied nature of this group means that it includes species from a wide range of habitats, but most are plants of grassy places or, in the case of the larger species, of garden origin and therefore most likely to be found in human-influenced habitats.
Identification
In general, most species can be told by flower colour, coupled with details of the seed pods and leaves. The Restharrows require closer scrutiny so be sure to read the texts for each species carefully.
Judas-tree Cercis siliquastrum
Introduced from southern Europe. Popular as a garden ornamental but rarely seeding in our climate and likely only to be found as a surviving, planted tree, or a relic of former cultivation. Flowers May. A small to medium-sized tree with alternate, rounded leaves. When in flower, this species is truly spectacular as flowers emerge direct from the older branches and even the trunk, to give a sensational display in pinkish purple. The brown seed pods hang on the tree through the winter and can be very conspicuous.
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Black Locust Robinia pseudoacacia
(False-acacia). Introduced from North America. Popular as a garden ornamental but rarely seeding in our climate and likely only to be found as a surviving, planted tree, or a relic of former cultivation. Flowers June. A small to medium-sized tree with pinnate leaves. The clusters of white flowers are conspicuous but short-lived. Young trees and basal suckers on older trees carry stout spines.
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Japanese Pagoda Tree Styphnolobium japonicum
(Sophora japonica) Introduced from China and occasionally planted as an amenity tree. Flowers July to August. A tree that can attain impressive size with age, often spreading widely and requiring propping if allowed to grow freely. Young stems green, like those of the Laburnums. Leaves with 4-7 pairs of glossy leaflets. Flowers cream, produced in large bunches in mid- to late-summer. Seed pods beaded, seldom produced in the UK.
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Japanese Wisteria Wisteria floribunda
Introduced from eastern Asia. Popular as a garden ornamental but rarely noted outside of cultivation and noted only once in our region, in Cambridge. Flowers April to May. A large, long-lived climber, typically grown on house walls or over trellis. Easily told by the long clockwise-twining stems and large, hanging clusters of flowers. The Chinese Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) is very similar, but typically has shorter flower trusses and the stems twine anti-clockwise.
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White Broom Cytisus multiflorus
Introduced from southern Europe. Has been recorded from woodland in West Suffolk. Flowers May to June. Flowers are white or cream-coloured, sometimes with reddish veins. Note that some cultivated varieties of Common Broom can have creamy or white flowers. Leaves all simple, not trifoliate. White Broom can be told from Common Broom by the wing-like edges to the ridges on the stems, making them T-shaped in cross-section. Note that the garden hybrid, Cytisus x praecox is common in cultivation but has not yet been recorded in East Anglia outside of gardens. It may have yellow, cream or white flowers and may differ from White Broom only in having trifoliate leaves on older stems.
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Common Restharrow Ononis repens
Native. Widespread in a wide range of grassy places on chalk, boulder clay and coastal sands. Flowers June to September. A low-growing subshrub to 60cm in height with densely glandular hairy stems, the hairs distributed all around the stems. Leaves have three leaflets but may consist of a single, simple blade on upper parts of the plant. Occasionally the stems may bear a few spines. The pink and white flowers have the wings as long as the keel. Coastal forms are more prostrate and more glandular-hairy and are often referred to as subspecies maritima
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Spiny Restharrow Ononis spinosa
Native. Widespread on the boulder clay of south Norfolk and central Suffolk but uncommon or absent elsewhere. Flowers June to September. A low-growing but erect subshrub to 70cm in height with glandular hairy stems, the hairs distributed discreetly in one ore two narrow rows on the stems. Leaves have three leaflets but may consist of a single, simple blade on upper parts of the plant. The pink and white flowers have the wings shorter than the keel. The stems typically bear obvious, straw-coloured spines.
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