Common Broom (Cytisus scoparius or Sarothamnus scoparius), also known as European Broom, Scots Broom, Irish Broom or English Broom is a perennial, leguminous shrub native to northwestern Europe, where it is found in sunny sites, usually on dry, sandy soils. Common Broom is the hardiest broom, tolerating temperatures down to about -25 C.
Common Broom typically grows to 1-3 m tall, rarely 4 m, with main stems up to 5 cm thick, rarely 10 cm. It has green shoots with small deciduous trifoliate leaves 5-15 mm long, and in spring and summer is covered in profuse golden yellow flowers 20-30 mm from top to bottom and 15-20 mm wide. Flowering occurs after 50-80 growing degree days. In late summer, its pea-pod like seed capsules mature black, 2-3 cm long, 8 mm broad and 2-3 mm thick; they burst open, often with an audible crack, spreading seed from the parent plant.
Common Broom
It has been widely introduced into other continents, and is regarded as a noxious invasive species in many places such as California and New Zealand.
Brooms are a group of evergreen, semi-evergreen, and deciduous shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the legume family Fabaceae, mainly in the two genera Cytisus and Genista, but also in five other small genera (see box, right).
All the brooms and their relatives (including Laburnum and Ulex) are natives of Europe, north Africa and southwest Asia, with the greatest diversity in the Mediterranean region.
Many brooms (though not all) are fire-climax species, adapted to regular stand-replacing fires which kill the above-ground parts of the plants, but create conditions for regrowth from the roots and also for germination of stored seeds in the soil.
Feeds |
Contact