Cytisus striatus

Portuguese broom

Family: Fabaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Portuguese broom is a naturalized shrub found in southern coastal California regions including San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz, Santa Catalina Island, San Gabriel Mountains, and Peninsular Ranges in disturbed places at elevations below 300 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces pale yellow flowers in small axillary clusters with banner petals 10 to 25 millimeters long. Growing two to three meters tall with many slender branches that are eight to ten-angled and initially silky-hairy, it develops a complex branching structure. Its leaves feature one to three obovate leaflets that are glaucous and glabrous on the upper surface, with silky hairs on the lower surface, varying between sessile and petioled configurations depending on branch location. The fruit is an inflated pod one and a half to four centimeters long, densely covered in white hairs and containing several seeds.

Habitat: Uncommon but locally abundant. Disturbed places

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: < 300 m

Bioregions: SnFrB, SCoRO, SCo, SnGb, PR, expected elsewhere

California counties: Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Francisco, Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa, Humboldt, San Diego, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Sonoma, Monterey, San Luis Obispo

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