Genista monspessulana (L.) L.A.S. Johnson
Cytisus monspessulanus L., Teline monspessulana (L.) K. Koch., G. candicans L., C. candicans (L.) Lam., C. kunzeanus Willk.
Eng.: Montpellier broom. Spa.: Escobón. Fre.: Genêt de Montpellier.
Shrub up to 2.5(3) m in height, unarmed, hermaphrodite, highly branched, with erect stems, very foliose. Stems and old branches with greyish-brown bark, fissured longitudinally, turning glabrous. Young branchlets ribbed longitudinally, with 6-7(8) T-shaped ribs and unequally developed, green, sericeous or villous. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate, with caducous stipules, sessile or shortly petiolate —petiole of less than 0.6 mm, sericeous or villous—, with leaflets 6-20 × 4-10 mm, less than 5 times longer than wide, obovate or obovate-oblong, flat, subsessile, attenuated at the base, rounded, retuse or acute, dark green and sometimes with some white hairs on the upper side, paler and villous on the underside. Inflorescence corymbiform, axillary, with 3-9 pedicellate flowers, with pedicel up to 4 mm, villous. Calyx 5-8 mm, sericeous or villous, split up to halfway into 2 lips, the upper lip divided up to the base into 2 triangular-lanceolate segments, and the lower lip tridentate. Corolla 13-16.5 mm, papilionoid, yellow, marcescent, with an elliptical standard, rounded or emarginate, glabrous, subequal or somewhat longer than the wings and the keel. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Ovary sericeous, and capitate stigma. Pod 15-30 × 4-6 mm, linear-oblong, compressed, first green then turning blackish-brown, densely villous or cottony, with 2-7 seeds. Seeds 2.2-3.3 mm, ± ovoid or somewhat compressed, smooth, brownish or black, with an aril.
Flowering:
March to May.
Fruiting:
May to July.
Habitat:
Forests and thickets of low and medium mountains, mainly on siliceous terrains. In areas with subhumid to humid bioclimate, on thermomediterranean and mesomediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region, however it has been introduced in somewhat remote regions, including in Macaronesia (Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands). In North Africa it grows in Morocco (Zaïan mountains, the northern Gharb and central-western Rif), northern Algeria (Tellian Atlas in a broad sense), and extreme NW Tunisia (Aïn-Soltane, in Krumiria).
Conservation status:
A relatively common species that is not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.