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Caragana brevispina Royle

Modern name

Caragana brevispina Benth.

A deciduous shrub up to 8 ft high, the young wood covered with fine down. Leaves pinnate; the common stalk (or rachis) is sharp-tipped, 1 to 3 in. long, remaining after the leaflets have fallen, and developing ultimately into a woody spine; stipules in the form of spines 14 in. long. Leaflets ten to fourteen on each leaf, oblong or oblanceolate; 13 to 1 in. long, 116 to 13 in. wide; covered when young with flattened silky hairs. Flowers yellow, about 34 in. long, produced three or four together at the end of a common stalk 1 to 2 in. long. Calyx 13 in. long, bell-shaped, with five narrow, fine-pointed teeth, downy. Pod 2 in. long, glabrous outside, woolly within.

Native of the north-western Himalaya at 5,000 to 9,000 ft elevation, distinguished from arborescens by the long, fine-pointed spines developed from the leaf-stalks, and by the several (not solitary) flowers on each stalk. It flowers in June. It is in cultivation in the R.H.S. Garden at Wisley from SSW 8135.


Genus

Caragana

Other species in the genus