White osyris
Osyris alba
Family · Santalaceae · Harmless
The shrub with green rods and narrow leaves that looks like a broom and is not: it is a sandalwood relative and lives partly off its neighbours' roots, with nothing visible from outside.
Scrubland · Oak woods · Montado · Walls and rocks
Also known aspoet's cassia
How to tell it
Green, straight, angular rods with small, narrow, leathery, alternate, well-spaced leaves. Tiny yellow-green flowers. Glossy red berries the size of a pea in late summer.
What it is confused with
Broom
Cytisus striatus
Both have green rods. Broom is a legume, with a yellow pea flower and a pod; osyris has insignificant green flowers and bears red berries, which no broom does.
Open sheet →What it is for
No relevant use. The interest is ecological: it is a root hemiparasite, which means it photosynthesises normally but steals water and minerals from whatever is nearby. The berries feed birds.