Plant with black bean pods?

Amoeba · #1 (**permalink**) 10-03-2009, 08:26 PM

I'm not very good with plants.

There's this plant that I've found growing wild (or maybe ferral) in just one place in Edinburgh, that one place being on an abandoned path next to a rail track. I've actually never seen this plant anywhere else (ever!). I think it's really pretty, and it makes a nice sound when you brush up against it or when it blows in the wind. I'll try my best to describe it but I'd understand if it can't really be identified without a picture. Maybe I can get a pic tomorrow if I can get the driver for my camera to work.

The ones I have seen have all been similar in size and shape. They grow about as tall as a person and grow quite wide. The leaves point upwards and are long and thin, not flat at all, more like conifer leaves but larger and less dense. It also seems to have a similar colour to a conifer, a dark rich green with a slight tinge of blue. The bean pods are about an inch and a half long, and about a centimetre and a half wide. They are an ashy black colour and have a thin, papery texture. It makes a pleasant hissing, rustling sound.

Anybody have any idea what it could be? I've been trying to find out for over a year.

Hedge Witch · #2 (**permalink**) 10-03-2009, 08:28 PM

I wonder if it's a kind of Broom?

Looking forward to seeing it, if possible.

Amoeba · #3 (**permalink**) 10-03-2009, 08:33 PM

I think it could very well be a kind of broom. It's just so unusual in the way its leaves are so slender and lack any (or parhaps have very few?) broad parts at all.

NickCantle · #4 (**permalink**) 10-03-2009, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amoeba

I'm not very good with plants.

There's this plant that I've found growing wild (or maybe ferral) in just one place in Edinburgh, that one place being on an abandoned path next to a rail track. I've actually never seen this plant anywhere else (ever!). I think it's really pretty, and it makes a nice sound when you brush up against it or when it blows in the wind. I'll try my best to describe it but I'd understand if it can't really be identified without a picture. Maybe I can get a pic tomorrow if I can get the driver for my camera to work.

The ones I have seen have all been similar in size and shape. They grow about as tall as a person and grow quite wide. The leaves point upwards and are long and thin, not flat at all, more like conifer leaves but larger and less dense. It also seems to have a similar colour to a conifer, a dark rich green with a slight tinge of blue. The bean pods are about an inch and a half long, and about a centimetre and a half wide. They are an ashy black colour and have a thin, papery texture. It makes a pleasant hissing, rustling sound.

Anybody have any idea what it could be? I've been trying to find out for over a year.

Do the pods 'pop' in the heat? I thought Broom too

KeenTeen17 · #5 (**permalink**) 10-03-2009, 08:42 PM

Is this the one you are talking about Amoeba. It should be in flower soon.
Broom

Amoeba · #6 (**permalink**) 10-03-2009, 08:47 PM

I do recognise the yellow flowers from last year, though they were sparser and smaller than in those pictures and I'm not sure if they were the same shape. It probably is a type of broom though I don't recall a popping sound, I've only ever heard that come from grains like barley.

I think I'll definitely need to get a picture of them before anybody can identify the exact species of broom...