Umbellate broom
Genista umbellata
Family · Fabaceae · Harmless
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The grey, downy broom of arid southeastern scrub, covering itself in yellow clusters at the branch tips in March. It dominates whole slopes where rain is scarce.
Scrubland · Uplands · Roadsides and waste ground
Also known aswhite-flowered broom
How to tell it
Thin, upright branches covered in flattened hairs, giving the bush a silvery grey tone. Yellow flowers grouped in a tight cluster at each branch tip, not scattered along it. No spines. Range: mainly a Spanish plant, practically absent from Portugal.
What it is confused with
Silvery anthyllis
Anthyllis cytisoides
They share the arid slope and the silvery tone. Albaida carries flowers in a spike along the rod; bolina gathers them into a single cluster at the tip.
What it is for
It was firewood and brooms. Today it counts as a plant for stabilising arid soils, and is one of the few giving cover in the semi-desert areas of the southeast.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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