Genista maderensis

Madeira broom, Madeira Broom

Family: Fabaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Madeira broom is a naturalized shrub found in northern Sierra Nevada foothills, San Francisco Bay Area, and southern Coastal Ranges in disturbed areas at elevations below 700 meters. Flowering in April, this plant produces yellow flowers in dense terminal racemes 15 to 40 millimeters long. Growing as a compact shrub less than 2 meters tall with dull yellow-brown hairy twigs, it develops a distinctive scaly appearance from persistent stipules. Its leaves feature 10 to 15 millimeter oblanceolate to obovate leaflets that are sparsely hairy on top and densely hairy underneath. The fruit is 20 to 35 millimeters long and densely covered in silky hairs.

Habitat: Uncommon. Disturbed areas

Bloom period: Apr

Elevation: < 700 m

Bioregions: n SNF (Butte Co.), SnFrB (Santa Clara Co., unconfirmed report), SCoRO (Monterey Co.)

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