Perennial Plant Profiles

Colutea arborescens, bladder senna

We can think of at least 180 great forest garden & perennial crops for cold climate Sweden.  Want to hear about them? Over the course of the next year we will profile 5 a week on the blog. Perennial plants and crops offer a low energy, oil & resource input based foundation for future-proof agricultures. By default if an agriculture is to be called regenerative the bottom line is that it must be soil building, not soil depleting. Relentless deep tillage & poor soil husbandry (wifery?!) contributes to the majority of the 24 billion tons of topsoil lost every year on planet water.  We are going to be focused on holistic polyculture grazing and perennial production at ridgedale over most of the site as this represents the most effective way to restore our degraded landscape, produce high value produce and ensure the future resource base we are managing holistically for in our decision making. 

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Genus Colutea
Species arborescens
Common Name bladder senna
Form shrub
Habit clumping
Origin Eurasia
Light sun
Moisture dry to mesic
Nitrogen Fixer Yes

Colutea arborescens is a species of leguminous shrub known by the common name bladder senna. It is native to Europe and North Africa, but it is known on other continents where it is grown as an ornamental and used in landscaping for erosion control. It is also known in the wild as an occasionally weedy escapee from cultivation. The shrub takes a rounded form and has many branches covered in deciduous leaves. The leaves are made up of many pairs of slightly hairy oval-shaped leaflets, each up to about 3 centimeters long. The inflorescence is a raceme of generally pea-like yellow flowers about 3 centimeters long. The fruit is an inflated bladdery pod which dries to a papery texture. It is 2 to 3 centimeters long and contains many seeds.

The plants have an extensive root system and are used to stabilize banks and prevent soil erosion. Can be grown as a hedge.  It's Nitrogen fixing ability makes it a useful addition in perennial cropping & forest garden scenarios.

The leaves are diuretic and purgative. The leaves are sometimes used as a substitute for senna as a laxative, though they are much milder in their action. The seeds are emetic, and are also toxic.

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OUR FRIENDS AT PFAF HAVE AN AMAZING DATABASE OF SPECIES (UK BASED);

Colutea arborescens

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