General Description:The following description of Spartium junceum is adapted from Munz and Keck (1973).
Spartium junceum is a perennial shrub, up to 3 m high, with long, slender, leafless or few-leaved, green, rushlike branchlets. The shrub is virgately branched and contains no spines, unlike gorse (Ulex europaeus). The alternate leaves are simple, entire and more or less strigose, having short petioles. The oblance-oblong or narrower leaves are 1-3 cm long.
The fragrant yellow flowers are borne in loose terminal racemes, unlike those of Cytisus scoparius which are usually solitary in the axils. Individual flowers are 2-2.5 cm long. The banner and keel are longer than the wings, and the keel is pubescent along its lower edge. The calyx is split above, hence one-lipped, with 5 minute teeth. This may be contrasted with the two-lipped calyx of Cytisus monspessulanus. The stamens are monadelphous (united by their filaments forming a tube around the gynoecium).
The linear pods are 5-10 cm long, more or less strigose, compressed, and many seeded. Each seed has a basal strophiole (appendage at the hilum).EDDMapS Distribution - This map is incomplete and is based only on current site and county level reports made by experts, herbaria, and literature. For more information, visit www.eddmaps.org
State List - This map identifies those states that list this species on their invasive species list or law. For more information, visit Invasive.org
Kingdom: Plantae |
Phylum: Magnoliophyta |
Class: Magnoliopsida |
Subclass: Rosidae |
Order: Fabales |
Family: Fabaceae |
Genus: Spartium |
Subject: Spartium junceum L. |
Other Common Names:
weaver's broom