Species

Genista monspessulana

Etymology

Genista: From the ancient Latin name for this plant.

Common Name(s)

montpellier broom

Authority

Genista monspessulana (L.) L.A.S.Johnson (1962)

Family

Fabaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

NVS Species Code

GENMNS

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Trees & Shrubs

Synonyms

Teline monspessulana (L.) K.Koch

Habitat

Terrestrial.

Features

Much-branched, usually evergreen shrub up to 2.5m high; twigs villous, particularly when young, round and ribbed. Leaves usually sparsely to densely clothed in appressed hairs on both surfaces, sometimes subglabrous above, petiolate, 3-foliolate; leaflets shortly petiolulate, obovate, acute to obtuse and shortly mucronate, 7~20 x 4~10mm; terminal leaflet larger than lateral leaflets; stipules triangular to lanceolate, up to 2.5mm long. Infl. a cluster, with axis < 10mm long, of 4~7 flowers, terminating short lateral branches; pedicels approx. 3mm long. Calyx densely hairy, bilabiate; upper lip deeply bifid; lower lip shortly 3-lobed. Corolla yellow to golden yellow, 9~13mm long; standard glabrous. Pod densely villous, oblong, 3~6-seeded, around 18~20mm long; seeds green to black, ellipsoid or orbicular, flattened, approx. 2.5mm diam. (Webb et. al., 1988)

Similar Taxa

Evergreen shrub with trifoliate leaves, with stipules and either petiolate or subsessile. Flowers in clusters of 4-7 usually, with an axis of about 1cm (can be up to 4cm in hybrids).

Flowering

May, June, July, August, September, October, November

Flower Colours

Yellow

Year Naturalised

1872

Origin

Mediterranean , Asia Minor, Azores

Reason For Introduction

Ornamental.

Life Cycle Comments

Perennial. Dispersed by wind, gravity, seed is explosive on warm days.

This page last updated on 17 Aug 2013