Laburnum Laburnum Laburnum, sometimes called golden chain or golden rain, is a genus of two species of small trees in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are "Laburnum anagyroides"—common laburnum and "Laburnum alpinum"—alpine laburnum. They are native to the mountains of southern Europe from France to the Balkans. Some botanists include a third species, "Laburnum caramanicum", but this native of southeast Europe and Anatolia is usually treated in a distinct genus "Podocytisus", more closely allied to the "Genisteae" (brooms). The "Laburnum" trees are deciduous. The leaves are trifoliate, somewhat like a clover; the leaflets are typically long
Cerbera manghas been introduced to Hawaii and other tropical locations as an ornamental. The leaves and the fruits contain the potent cardiac glycoside cerberin, which is extremely poisonous if ingested. People in olden times used the sap of the tree as a poison for animal hunting. In Madagascar, the seeds were used in ordeals called "tangena", with often deadly results. The fruit was reportedly eaten to commit suicide in the Marquesas Islands, (Whistler, W. A. 1992. Flowers of the Pacific Island Seashore). In Hawaii Cerbera manghas is sometimes called "suicide apple". Because of its deadly poisonous seeds, the genus name is derived