Cytisus striatus
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| Cytisus striatus | ||||||||||||||
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 hairy pods
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| Cytisus striatus (Hill) Rothm. |
Cytisus striatus is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Portuguese broom. This plant is native to the Iberian Peninsula but it is also known in other parts of the world as an introduced species. It was introduced to California in the 1960s to be used as an erosion-controlling groundcover, but it spread and is now a noxious weed there. It is also a problem in Oregon. This is a tall shrub often exceeding two meters 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, but it can be distinguished by the paler shade of yellow of its flowers and by the hairy coat on its pods. This plant causes problems in its non-native range in several ways, including its displacement of native species and its susceptibility to fire.
