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 the Pacific Northwest and Northern Europe. "Laburnum" trees are ubiquitous in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, where they are commonly planted as lawn specimens or in shrub borders. Most garden specimens are of the hybrid between the two species, "Laburnum" ×"watereri" 'Vossii' (Voss's laburnum), which combines the longer racemes of "L. alpinum" with the denser flowers of "L. anagyroides"; it also has the benefit of low seed production. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Laburnum Laburnum, sometimes called golden chain or golden rain, is a genus of two species of small trees in the subfamily