When I cycle around Vancouver Island, Broom is my favourite vegetation. Bright yellow. Cheery. Everywhere.
Unfortunately many folks hate it. Broom spreads rapidly and densely, chokes out native species, and prevents reforestation. It is a fire hazard & toxic to animals and the soil. People volunteer to go cut it down while in bloom.
Broom is the English version of an olde German word for “thorny shrub”.
Use of the branches of these plants for sweeping gave rise to the term broom for sweeping tools in the 15th century …
Broom is pretty much a weed. It’s sometimes used for wasteland reclamation (e.g. mine tailings) and sand dune stabilising. It grows in poor soil.
On the east and west coasts of North America, common broom (Cytisus scoparius) was introduced as an ornamental plant …
It is known in much of the pacific northwest as Scotch broom. It has become a naturalised invasive weed, and due to its aggressive seed dispersal broom removal has proved very difficult. …
