Prickly broom
Pterospartum tridentatum
Family · Fabaceae · Harmless
The low spiny shrub of the northern sierras, with flattened, wing-like stems. It is the plant behind carqueja rice and the infusion half the mountains drink.
Scrubland · Uplands · Pine woods
Also known aswinged broom
How to tell it
No true leaves: photosynthesis is done by the flat green stems, with three teeth at the tip. Yellow pea flowers in spring. Only on acid soils.
What it is confused with
Gorse
Ulex europaeus
They share the scrub and the yellow flower. Gorse is big and made of stiff spines; carqueja is low, with flat three-toothed stems that do not really prick.
What it is for
The flowers and tender stems make the Trás-os-Montes carqueja rice and a traditional bitter infusion. It was also oven fuel and livestock bedding in the sierras.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.
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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