Cytisus arboreus (Desf.) DC.

Spice In the field

Family: LEGUMINOSAE

Genus: Cytisus

Sinònims: Sarothamnus arboreus (Desf.) Webb

Catalan common name: Ginestell. Ginestell català.

Spanish common name: Escobón.

Province distribution: Barcelona. Girona.

General distribution (Phytogeography): West Mediterranean

Flowering time: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Life-forms: Nanophanerophyte. Perennial.

Habitats: Oakforest. Tree heather maquis and silicolous garigues.

Characteristics: Silicole scrublands or holm-oak woods and sparse cork woodlands. A foliose shrub, tall with slightly striated branches. The leaves are trifoliolate, with folioles obovate and the petioles as long or longer than these. The flowers are separate or in groups of two, on the leaf axial. The calyx is bilabiate. The pod (legume) is blackened, oblong and compressed; initially it's pilose, but turns glabrescent. Its very similar to C. scoparius, but the former has a an obovate keel and the legume is aciliate at the margin.The Catalan population have been subscribed to the subsp. catalaunicus (Webb) Maire in Emb. & Maire, endemic to this region.