Description
Genista – Chamaespartium – Echinopartum – Teline – Broom –
There are about 90 species of mainly deciduous, sometimes spiny shrubs and occasionally trees, which may appear evergreen because of their flat green branchlets, in this genus. They occur in pastures and moorland to cliffs and rocky places in Europe, the Mediterranean, and Western Asia. They have alternate, simple or 3 palmate leaves, usually to ½” long, sometimes more, but may be nearly leafless. They are grown for their small, fragrant, pea like yellow flowers, held singly or in terminal racemes or dense heads. Grow as specimen plants, or in a shrub border or rock garden.
Grow in light, poor to moderately fertile, well drained soil in full sun.
Prone to dieback, powdery mildew and scale insects.
G. lydia – Lydia woodwaxen – Dwarf Genista – This deciduous, domed shrub from Eastern Balkans grows 2-3′ feet tall and 3′ feet wide. From slender, prostrate, prickle-tipped, gray-green branches it carries linear-elliptic, blue-green leaves. In early summer it bears an abundance of pea like, yellow flowers, to ½” long, in short racemes, 2″ long followed by flat non-hairy fruit.
Zones 6-10
