Gardens in many parts of the country will now be brilliant with the flowers of the laburnum, a wonderful, yellow, dripping down. No wonder the Germans call it Goldregen or golden rain. But surely everyone knows that its seeds, which come in pods like peas, are highly toxic. A family had a terrifying experience when one of their children went into a coma and another fell sick - they had been having a tea party in the garden and were eating the "peas" from the laburnum tree. Fortunately that splendid and loveable doctor, Sean McCann of Terenure was at hand, and there were no fatalities, but it frightened the parents out of having, ever again, a laburnum in their garden. Even a passerby, if the tree was in the front garden, could be in danger, by casually picking up a pod. Oddly, although all books mention, and some stress, this danger of poison, laburnums are widely planted not only in gardens but also, in Britain, in pastureland.
Richard Mabey confesses himself at a loss to explain why this bush, which can grow into a biggish tree, should be planted in what are almost exclusively stock raising areas. Moreover they are planted as complete hedges, and he mentions areas in Shropshire. In some cases they are no longer hedges, but due to neglect, have grown into rows of trees. Coleridge, the poet, wanted to plant them in the woods around Grasmere. Is it possible that they were planted in some cases to feed the bees? Or for their wood? For, in some areas, self-sufficient farmers and craftsmen would appreciate good timber. The wood has a unique grain pattern with a purple-chocolate heartwood core inside pale yellow outer wood. It is hard enough to be cut thinly, we are told in Mabey's Flora Britannica, and has been used in ornamental furniture, for inlays and veneers, especially. But this does not explain their being used as hedging plants.
Cardiganshire is especially mentioned. Not our normal suburban species, but big and coppiced, as the trees often are, the stools or remains of the trunks may measure up to a metre in diameter. They can also occur layered like a hedge or pleached i.e. arranged ornamentally along a wall or something like that. Some farmers just like their big yellow trees and will take risks with their stock. But you, in your gardens, watch for your children playing tea-parties with peas.