Cytisus scoparius

Scotch broom

Family: Fabaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Scotch broom is a naturalized shrub found in northwestern California, the Sierra Nevada foothills, northern Sierra Nevada, northern Sierra Nevada high country, Central Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, southern California coastal areas, and San Bernardino Mountains in disturbed places at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces abundant golden yellow flowers with distinctive reflexed banner petals about 15 to 20 millimeters long. Growing as a robust shrub two to two and a half meters tall with five-angled green branches that become increasingly glabrous with age, it develops a distinctive architectural form. Its leaves are initially simple on younger stems and become compound with three leaflets on older branches, each leaflet 5 to 20 millimeters long and obovate to oblong in shape. The fruit is a flat brown or black pod 2.5 to 4 centimeters long, producing numerous seeds that contribute to its aggressive spread in disturbed habitats.

Habitat: Common. Disturbed places

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRF, n&ampc SNF, n SNH, GV, SnFrB, SCo, SnBr

California counties: El Dorado, Humboldt, San Bernardino, Trinity, San Mateo, Mariposa, Mendocino, Nevada, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, Madera, Butte, Calaveras, Monterey, Plumas, Santa Clara, Shasta, Sierra, Del Norte, Placer, Amador, Contra Costa, Yuba, Glenn, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Tehama, Solano, Alameda

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.