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Portrait of a plague
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
The Dyer's Broom Genista tinctoria provides a useful yellow dye.
In some areas of North America, the Common Broom, introduced as an ornamental plant, has become naturalised and an invasive weed due to its aggressive seed dispersal; it has proved very difficult to eradicate. Similarly, it is a major problem species in the cooler and wetter areas of southern Australia and New Zealand.
Brooms are a group of evergreen, semi-evergreen, and deciduous shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the legume family Fabaceae, mainly in the two genera Cytisus and Genista, but also in five other small genera (see box, right). All genera in this group are from the tribe Cytiseae. These genera are all closely related and share similar characters of dense, slender green stems and very small leaves, adaptations to dry growing conditions. Most of the species have yellow flowers, but a few have white, orange, red, pink or purple flowers. Two other close relatives are Ulex (Gorse) and Laburnum (Laburnum), but these differ more strongly in appearance from the brooms. Some botanists include Podocytisus caramanica in the genus Laburnum.
All the brooms and their relatives (including Laburnum and Ulex) are natives of Europe, north Africa and southwest Asia, with the greatest diversity in the Mediterranean region. Many brooms (though not all) are fire-climax species, adapted to regular stand-replacing fires which kill the above-ground parts of the plants, but create conditions for regrowth from the roots and also for germination of stored seeds in the soil.
Source: wikipedia |
dew77, Janice has marked this note useful
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