Flora of New Zealand Series

Shrubs or small trees, not armed. Lvs 3-foliolate, usually petiolate, rarely apetiolate; stipules usually present, rarely 0. Infls racemose, axillary or terminal; bracts and bracteoles small, caducous. Calyx tubular, bilabiate; upper lip deeply 2-fid; lower lip with 3 distinct lobes. Corolla yellow. Stamens connate into a closed tube; alternate anthers long and basifixed or short and versatile. Style glabrous; stigma terminal. Pod 2-valved, ± straight, explosively dehiscent, 2-8-seeded; seeds strophiolate, smooth.

9 spp., Macaronesia, Mediterranean. Naturalised spp. 3.

Teline is sometimes treated as a sect. of Cytisus; the genus has been revised recently by Gibbs, P. E. and Dingwall, I., Boletim da Sociedade Broteriana 45: 269-314 (1971). Several spp. are cultivated as garden shrubs.