Thorny broom

Calicotome spinosa, the spiny broom or thorny broom, is a thorny deciduous to semi-evergreen shrub of the family Fabaceae growing 1-3 m tall and native to the western Mediterranean region from Portugal, Spain and Morocco through southern France to Italy and Sardinia. The plant forms a dense intricately branched bush with stiff, deeply furrowed, dark green to greyish stems that taper into sharp woody spines 1-4 cm long. Young branches are silky-pubescent and bear small alternate trifoliate leaves with obovate to oblanceolate leaflets 5-15 mm long that are glabrous above and silky-hairy beneath; the leaves are usually deciduous in summer, leaving the plant looking nearly leafless. In spring and early summer the shrub is covered in bright golden yellow pea-flowers 10-15 mm long borne singly or in small clusters of 2-5 in the axils of the spines, with a glabrous calyx that splits transversely at flowering. The fruit is a flat, oblong, glabrous or slightly hairy pod 2-4 cm long containing several hard shiny seeds. It is a characteristic component of garrigue, maquis and degraded pine forest on dry stony slopes and is highly fire-tolerant.