#2243 - Cytisus scoparius - English Broom
AKA various Sarothamnus sp., Spartium scoparium, common broom or Scotch broom.
A deciduous legume native to western and central Europe, highly invasive everywhere else. One estimate blames it for US$47 million in lost timber production each year in Oregon state, alone, since it's the first plant to recolonise after fires and crowds out tree seedlings. In Aotearoa it's estimated to cost the forestry industry NZ$90 million, and to cost farmers an additional NZ$10 million in losses.
Possible biological control for broom has been investigated since the mid-1980s, including the broom twig miner (Leucoptera spartifoliella), broom seed beetles (Bruchidius villosus), broom gall mites (Aceria genistae), sap-sucking broom psyllids (Arytainilla spartiophila), the Scotch broom seed weevil (Exapion fuscirostre) and most recently, the broom leaf beetle (Gonioctena olivacea) and broom shoot moths (Agonopterix assimilella).
The name of English royal House of Plantagenet, rulers of England in the Middle Ages, may have been derived from this plant, which was known as planta genista in Latin. They certainly used it in their heraldry.
Huka Falls, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand.
