Laburnum musical instruments. In addition to such wind instruments as recorders and flutes, it was a popular wood for Great Highland Bagpipes before taste turned to imported dense tropical hardwoods such as "Brya ebenus" (cocus wood), ebony, and "Dalbergia melanoxylon" (African monkeywood). The heart-wood of a laburnum may be used as a substitute for ebony or rosewood. It is very hard and a dark chocolate brown, with a butter-yellow sapwood. "Laburnum" species and hybrids are cultivated as ornamental trees for gardens and parks. They are also trained as espaliers on pergolas, for ceilings of pendant flowers in season. In its natural
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