Species
+

Cytisus scoparius (L.) Link

Besenginster, Brom, Broom, Broomtops

Climate known 107 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Cytisus scoparius, the common broom or Scotch broom, is a deciduous leguminous shrub native to western and central Europe. In Great Britain and Ireland, the standard name is broom; this name is also used for other members of the Genisteae tribe, such as French broom or Spanish broom; and the term common broom is sometimes used for clarification. In other English-speaking countries, the most common name is "Scotch broom" ; however, it is known as English broom in Australia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cytisus scoparius”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Cytisus

Cytisus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, native to open sites in Europe, western Asia and North Africa. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae, and is one of several genera in the tribe Genisteae which are commonly called brooms. They are shrubs producing masses of brightly coloured, pea-like flowers, often highly fragrant. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Cytisus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(L.) Link
Native to
Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland +26
Wild records
407 in range· 107 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
883mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 82 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–33DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 883 mm a year, wettest October at 82 mm, driest April at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -5.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Corema scoparium (L.) Bercht. & J.Presl; Cytiscus scoparius (L.) Link; Cytisogenista scoparia (L.) Rothm.; Cytisus scoparius var. scoparius; Genista scoparia (L.) Lam. and 7 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (634 mm of 883 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 15.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 883 mm a year, wettest October at 82 mm, driest April at 49 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

883 mm a year at the habitat, 634 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 82 mm, driest April at 49 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 707 mm to 1341 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -5.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -5.5 °C, the absolute minimum -12.8 °C, about 71 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 23.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.0 °C in February (across the envelope cells -2.9 °C to 1.6 °C), warmest day 21.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 0 °C in Feb to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 883 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 371 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -12.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 23.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost23.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-12.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 4–33RH 60–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 371 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / 2–76 / 3–79 / 6–1013 / 9–1417 / 13–1820 / 16–2122 / 18–2322 / 18–2318 / 15–1914 / 11–159 / 6–105 / 3–7
Night °C0 / -3–20 / -3–22 / -0–34 / 3–58 / 7–911 / 10–1214 / 12–1514 / 12–1511 / 9–128 / 6–94 / 2–51 / -2–3
Rain mm79 / 52–12961 / 41–9771 / 49–10549 / 40–8768 / 53–9375 / 61–9581 / 59–10677 / 63–10677 / 60–11182 / 61–13581 / 59–13182 / 58–135
DLI5 / 3–710 / 8–1217 / 15–2027 / 25–2932 / 31–3533 / 33–3832 / 32–3727 / 26–3118 / 18–2311 / 10–146 / 4–84 / 3–6
RH %68 / 65–7066 / 63–6863 / 62–6560 / 59–6260 / 59–6260 / 59–6361 / 59–6361 / 59–6463 / 62–6565 / 64–6768 / 65–7069 / 65–71

Each figure is the median across the 371 grid cells holding the 404 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 726:3560 (53.675, -1.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 371 distinct grid cells holding the 404 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 726:3560 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 53.50_-1.875, lapse-corrected +110 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 286 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine· introduced: Turkey-in-Europe, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Provinces, Madagascar, Japan, Korea, Bangladesh, India, West Himalaya, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Antipodean Is., Chatham Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Hawaii, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington, New Jersey, New York, California, Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Chile Central
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker50.984, 7.059 · in the densest population, 165 records (41% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 407 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 107 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 572 km away. 322 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 3 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 407 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cytisus scopariusCytisus scopariusCytisus scopariusCytisus scopariusCytisus scopariusCytisus scopariusCytisus scopariusCytisus scoparius

Photographs: (c) Thomas Gyselinck, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Daniel Heras González, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Cytisus scoparius, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Large−scale disturbances, biological control and the dynamics of gorse populations
Mark Rees, Richard L. Hill (2001) · Journal of Applied Ecology
Predators, parasitoids and pathogens: species richness, trophic generality and body sizes in a natural food web
Jane Memmott, N. D. Martinez, J.E. Cohen (2000) · Journal of Animal Ecology
INVASION DYNAMICS OFCYTISUS SCOPARIUS: A MATRIX MODEL APPROACH
Ingrid M. Parker (2000) · Ecological Applications
How Does Pollen Chemistry Impact Development and Feeding Behaviour of Polylectic Bees?
Maryse Vanderplanck, Romain Moerman, Pierre Rasmont, Georges Lognay (2014) · PLoS ONE
Projecting Rates of Spread for Invasive Species
Michael G. Neubert, Ingrid M. Parker (2004) · Risk Analysis
Herbivores, seed banks and seedling recruitment in mesic grassland
G.R. Edwards, Michael J. Crawley (1999) · Journal of Ecology
The invertebrate fauna on broom, Cytisus scoparius,in two native and two exotic habitats
Jane Memmott, Simon V. Fowler, Quentin Paynter, A. W. Sheppard (2000) · Acta Oecologica
Rhizobial hitchhikers from Down Under: invasional meltdown in a plant–bacteria mutualism?
Susana Rodríguez‐Echeverría (2010) · Journal of Biogeography
Antioxidant effect of Cytisus scoparius against carbon tetrachloride treated liver injury in rats
Raja Sundararajan, Haja Nazeer Ahamed, V. Kumar, Kakali Mukherjee (2006) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Home away from home — objective mapping of high‐risk source areas for plant introductions
David M. Richardson, Wilfried Thuiller (2007) · Diversity and Distributions
Changes in the composition and function of bacterial communities during vermicomposting may explain beneficial properties of vermicompost
Jorge Domínguez, Manuel Aira, Allison R. Kolbe, María Gómez‐Brandón (2019) · Scientific Reports

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.