Flora of New Zealand Series

white broom

Much-branched, deciduous shrub up to 3 m high; twigs glabrous, but sericeous when young, green, rounded and ribbed. Lvs sericeous above and below when young, sessile and usually 1-foliolate on young twigs, but 1-3-foliolate, petiolate and ± glabrous on older twigs; leaflets apetiolulate, narrowly elliptic, acute, (1)-2-12 mm long; terminal leaflet > lateral leaflets. Fls in fascicles of 1-3, axillary; pedicels 3-7 mm long. Calyx moderately hairy, bilabiate, c. 1/4 length of corolla; upper and lower lips ± entire or shallowly toothed. Corolla white, 8-12 mm long. Pod moderately to densely hairy, dark grey, oblong, 1-6-seeded, 15-35 mm long; seeds greyish brown, ellipsoid, compressed, c. 2.5-3 mm long.

N.: Wellington City; S.: between Havelock and Rai Valley (Marlborough), locally established in N. and C. lowland Canterbury, scattered localities in C. Otago.

Spain, Portugal 1899

Dry waste places, scrubland, riverbeds.

FL Oct-May.

N.Z. material has shorter pedicels than the c. 10 mm usually given in European Floras. White broom is easily distinguished from the much more common C. scoparius, with which it sometimes grows intermixed, by the small, white fls and rounded, ribbed twigs. It has been previously known in N.Z. as C. albus.