Species
+

Colutea arborescens L.

Bladder senna, Bladder-senna, bladdersenna

Climate known 88 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

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.

Text from Wikipedia, “Colutea arborescens”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Colutea

Colutea is a genus of about 28 species of deciduous flowering shrubs in the legume family, Fabaceae, growing from 2–5 metres tall and native to the Old World. They are sometimes called bladder sennas, although they are not particularly closely related to the true sennas.

Text from Wikipedia, “Colutea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany +11
Wild records
1472 in range· 1021 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Jul, mean day; nights 15 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
791mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 81 mm (CHELSA)
Light
8–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and April to June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 791 mm a year, wettest October at 81 mm, driest February at 51 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -2.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Baguenaudiera arborescens (L.) Bubani, 1899; Colutea arborescens var. bullata G.Nicholson; Colutea arborescens × orientalis; Colutea florida Salisb.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and April to June in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (561 mm of 791 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and April to June. Mean temperature moves 16.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and October to December.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 791 mm a year, wettest October at 81 mm, driest February at 51 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

791 mm a year at the habitat, 561 mm of it September to January and April to June. Wettest month October at 81 mm, driest February at 51 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 572 mm to 1193 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -2.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -2.3 °C, the absolute minimum -10.9 °C, about 17 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -0.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -4.5 °C to 3.1 °C), warmest day 24.2 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 6 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul; mean night from -0 °C in Jan to 15 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 791 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1254 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -10.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost32.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-10.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 8–39RH 57–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1254 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / 2–108 / 4–1111 / 8–1514 / 12–1718 / 16–2122 / 19–2624 / 22–2924 / 22–2920 / 18–2416 / 13–1910 / 7–147 / 3–11
Night °C-0 / -5–30 / -4–33 / -1–55 / 2–89 / 6–1212 / 10–1615 / 13–1915 / 13–1912 / 10–158 / 6–124 / 0–71 / -3–4
Rain mm63 / 38–9751 / 34–8256 / 39–9063 / 43–10370 / 54–11164 / 35–9661 / 15–8962 / 30–9271 / 48–11981 / 46–13474 / 49–12875 / 49–121
DLI9 / 5–1415 / 10–2123 / 17–3031 / 27–3735 / 32–4238 / 34–4639 / 33–4634 / 28–4025 / 19–3116 / 12–2210 / 6–158 / 4–12
RH %64 / 58–6862 / 58–6560 / 56–6359 / 56–6159 / 56–6158 / 54–6157 / 52–6058 / 53–6160 / 56–6363 / 59–6565 / 60–6865 / 59–70

Each figure is the median across the 1254 grid cells holding the 1462 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 965:3633 (41.725, 1.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -10.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1254 distinct grid cells holding the 1462 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 965:3633 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 41.50_1.875, lapse-corrected +215 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 517 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, France, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia· introduced: Great Britain, Belgium, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, South European Russia, Ukraine, Primorye, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, South Australia, Ontario, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., West Virginia, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Argentina Northeast, Chile Central
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker44.891, 5.724 · in the densest population, 554 records (38% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1472 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1021 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 222 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1472 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Colutea arborescensColutea arborescensColutea arborescensColutea arborescensColutea arborescensColutea arborescensColutea arborescensColutea arborescens

Photographs: (c) Leonardo Ancillotto, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Todd Boland, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Jacek Pietruszewski, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Colutea arborescens, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Canavanine: detection and occurrence in Colutea arborescens
William Robert Fearon, E.Arthur Bell (1955) · Biochemical Journal
Direct and indirect effects of Mediterranean vegetation on runoff and soil loss
Pablo García-Estringana, N. Alonso‐Blázquez, María José Marqués, Ramón Bienes (2010) · European Journal of Soil Science
Flavonoids in seed coats of two Colutea species: Ecophysiological aspects
Itziar Aguinagalde, Félix Pérez-Garcı́a, Aldo E. González (1990) · Journal of Basic Microbiology
CHANGING CLIMATE AND THE EFFECTS ON VEGETATION IN CENTRAL EUROPEAN CITIES
Herbert Sukopp, Angelika Wurzel (2000) · Arboricultural Journal
Coluteol and Colutequinone B, More Antifungal Isoflavonoids from Colutea arborescens
Paul W. Grosvenor, David O. Gray (1998) · Journal of Natural Products
Seasonal Quality Assessment of Leaves and Stems of Fodder Ligneous Species
Z. M. Parissi, Εleni M. Abraham, Christos Roukos, A. P. Kyriazopoulos (2018) · Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca
Stromatonectriagen. nov. and notes onMyrmaeciella
Walter M. Jaklitsch, Hermann Voglmayr (2011) · Mycologia

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 168 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.