Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Account for Scotch Broom - Cytisus scoparius   (L.) Link
Members of Fabaceae:
Only member of Cytisus in NC.
Google Images
Section 6 » Order Fabales » Family Fabaceae
Show/Hide Synonym
Author(L.) Link
DistributionMostly Piedmont and Sandhills, less frequent in the Mountains and Coastal Plain.

Native of southern Europe; in N.A. mostly in East Coast and West Coast states.
AbundanceUncommon to infrequent throughout, except rare in the Coastal Plain and Outer Banks (Roanoke Island).
HabitatDry soils of roadsides, roadbanks, fields, clearings, disturbed areas.
PhenologyFlowering April-June.
IdentificationScotch Broom is a shrub 3-7 feet tall with dark green, strongly ascending branches. The main stem usually produces gray-brown bark with striations. Flowers are numerous along branches, bright yellow to golden yellow and more than an inch long. When in full bloom, a bush of this species has truly uncountable numbers of flowers, seemingly over the entire plant from top to bottom.
Taxonomic Comments
Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
County Map - click on a county to view source of record.

View Mapping Selection Options
Select a source
AllHerbaria
Select an occurrence type
AllCollection_non_natural