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Cytisus scoparius subsp. maurus (Humbert & Maire) Talavera

C. maurus Humbert & Maire, Sarothamnus maurus (Humbert & Maire) Raynaud, Cytisus grandiflorus subsp. maurus (Humbert & Maire) Auvray

Eng.: Scotch broom.   Spa.: Escoba, escobón, retama de escobas, hiniesta, retama negra.

Shrub, up to 2 m in height or taller, unarmed, hermaphrodite, deciduous, highly branched from the base, with erect stems. Stems and older branches with bark fissured longitudinally, brownish, glabrous. Young branchlets striated longitudinally, with 5 triangular ribs, sharp, green, somewhat villous or then silky. Leaves unifoliolate in young branchlets and in the upper part of old branches, with sessile or subsessile leaflet; the rest of the plant with trifoliolate leaves. Petiole 6-13 mm, flat. Stipules not differentiated. Leaflets from obovate to oblanceolate, glabrescent on the upper side and ± hairy on the underside, green. Flowers solitary or geminate, borne on the leaf axils or on pulvini of the previous year, on a long pedicel 6-12 mm, glabrous, with 2 very small bracteoles towards halfway. Calyx 6-7 mm, campanulate, membranous, green at first, then brown-blackish, bilabiate: the upper lip with 2 small teeth at the tip, the lower lip with 3 teeth. Corolla 18-22 mm, papilionoid, yellow, glabrous, with suborbicular standard, slightly emarginate at the apex and cordiform at the base, with wings and keel slightly larger; keel with the tip somewhat curved upwards. Androecium monadelphous, with 10 stamens. Ovary glabrous, style slightly or not hairy, inrolled into 1 or more circles. Pod c. 3.5 × 0.9 cm, oblong-linear, highly compressed, green at first, then blackish, glabrous except along the ciliate suture line. Seeds 6-10, ovoid, compressed, from brownish to greenish, smooth.