''Cytisus striatus'' is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common names hairy-fruited broom and Portuguese broom. This plant is native to the west of the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

and northwestern Morocco.

Description

This is a tall shrub often exceeding in height. It is highly branched and sprawling. The sparse leaves are made up of small leaflets about a centimeter long each. The shrub bears yellow legume flowers and the pods are covered in white hairs. This shrub is similar to its relative, ''

Cytisus scoparius ''Cytisus scoparius'' ( syn. ''Sarothamnus scoparius''), the common broom or Scotch broom, is a deciduous leguminous shrub native to western and central Europe. In Britain and Ireland, the standard name is broom; this name is also used for oth ...

'', but it can be distinguished by the paler shade of yellow of its flowers and by the hairy coat on its pods.

Invasive plant species

It is also known in other parts of the world as an

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

. It was introduced to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

in the 1960s as an erosion-controlling plant, but it 'escaped' and spread to become a major

noxious weed A noxious weed, harmful weed or injurious weed is a weed that has been designated by an agricultural or other governing authority as a plant that is injurious to agricultural or horticultural crops, natural habitats or ecosystems, or humans or li ...

, an

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species adv ...

colonizing in many

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s there. It is also caused ecological damages in

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. This plant, beyond its native range, causes problems in many ways, including displacement of native species causing

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

degradation and loss, removing

native plant In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is eq ...

food sources for wildlife, and a susceptibility to wildfire ignition and spread.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants Profile
striatus Flora of Southwestern Europe {{Faboideae-stub