Cytisus scoparius(L.) Link

Scotch Broom

WFO wfo-0000213711 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Cytisus scoparius, photographed by Erin Springinotic
fig. a Erin Springinotic, CC0 1.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205577937
Cytisus scoparius, photographed by Pavel Kacl
fig. b Pavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205825694
Cytisus scoparius, photographed by Marco Mussita
fig. c Marco Mussita, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205760994
Cytisus scoparius, photographed by Pete Bradshaw
fig. d Pete Bradshaw, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204827959
Cytisus scoparius, photographed by Erin Springinotic
fig. e Erin Springinotic, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204567807
Cytisus scoparius, photographed by Pavel Kacl
fig. f Pavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205683607
Cytisus scoparius, photographed by Anne Thomson
fig. g Anne Thomson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204070551
Cytisus scoparius, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. h Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204026606

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Flowering n = 4,758 observations

Peak flowering in May, from 4,758 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 80 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Corema scoparium (L.) Bercht. & J.Presl
  • Cytisogenista scoparia (L.) Rothm.
  • Cytisogenista scoparia var. bourgaei (Boiss.) Rothm.
  • Cytisogenista scoparia var. leiostyla (Willk.) Rothm.
  • Cytisogenista scoparia var. leiostylos (Willk.) Rothm.
  • Cytisogenista scoparia var. oxyphylla (Boiss.) Rothm.
  • Cytisus andreanus (Puiss.) G.Nicholson
  • Cytisus glabratus Link
  • Cytisus insularis S.Ortiz & Pulgar
  • Cytisus reverchonii (Degen & Hervier) Bean
  • Cytisus scoparius f. albus (G.Don) C.K.Schneid.
  • Cytisus scoparius f. andreanus (Puiss.) Zabel
  • Cytisus scoparius f. bicolor (Massé) Auvray
  • Cytisus scoparius f. plenus Rehder
  • Cytisus scoparius f. sulphureus (Goldring) Rehder
  • Cytisus scoparius subsp. bourgaei (Boiss.) Rivas Mart., Fern.Gonz. & Sánchez Mata
  • Cytisus scoparius var. albus G.Don
  • Cytisus scoparius var. andreanus (Puiss.) Dippel
  • Cytisus scoparius var. bourgaei (Boiss.) Briq.
  • Cytisus scoparius var. marianus Sennen
  • Cytisus scoparius var. oxyphyllus (Boiss.) Briq.
  • Cytisus scoparius var. pallescens (Tinant) Magnel
  • Cytisus scoparius var. pallidus Goldring
  • Cytisus scoparius var. prostratus (C.Bailey) F.Hanb. ex A.B.Jacks.

and 56 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.