Common Name: Brooms
Description: Shrubs; branches usually ribbed.
Leaves alternate, 3-foliolate, ( sometimes 1-foliolate or simple), sessile or petiolate; stipules small or absent.
Flowers in axillary or terminal clusters, heads or racemes, rarely solitary; bracts and bracteoles persistent. Calyx 2-lipped, upper lip deeply 2-toothed, lower lip slightly 3-toothed. Standard ovate to broad-obovate; wings oblong; keel narrow-oblong, slightly bent or straight. Stamens monodelphous; anthers alternately long and basifixed and short and dorsifixed. Ovary sessile; c. 2-ovuled; style incurved; stigma capitate or oblique.
Pod dehiscent or indehiscent; seeds 1–many, sometimes with an aril.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 75 species, northern Europe, northern Africa, western Asia. Australia: 4 species (naturalized) N.S.W., Vic., N.T., S.A., Norfolk Island
Text by C. Gardner
Taxon concept:
Taxa not yet included in identification key
Genista tinctoria
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves sessile or subsessile; leaflet margins recurved to revolute; stipules absent; standard hairy | Genista linifolia |
| Leaves with petiole at least 2 mm long; leaflet margins flat; stipules present; standard more or less glabrous | 2 |
| 2 | Inflorescences 3–7-flowered, short racemes or clusters, less than 2 cm long; petioles 2–4 mm long; leaflets obovate to oblanceolate, mostly 0.5–2 cm long | Genista monspessulana |
| Inflorescences 5–26-flowered, short to elongate racemes, mostly 2–9 cm long; petioles 4–12 mm long; leaflets elliptic to obovate or oblanceolate, 0.8–3 cm long
Back to 1 | Genista stenopetala |
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