Retama sphaerocarpa

Retama sphaerocarpa (yellow retama, Spanish broom) is a much-branched, erect to spreading, broom-like shrub of the legume family (Fabaceae), reaching about 2–3 m tall. Mature plants are essentially leafless for most of the year: photosynthesis is carried out by the numerous slender, green, finely striate, pendulous to wand-like twigs, while the small, simple, narrowly oblanceolate leaves are silky-pubescent and quickly deciduous as the dry summer advances, an adaptation to its semi-arid Mediterranean habitat. From May to July it produces short axillary racemes of small, fragrant, pale yellow pea-like flowers about 5–7 mm long crowded along the green twigs. The fruit, as the specific epithet indicates, is a distinctive small, spherical to ovoid, hard, woody, indehiscent legume pod 6–10 mm in diameter containing a single seed. Native to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), it is a characteristic component of open dry scrublands, abandoned fields, rocky slopes, and sandy degraded soils where it serves as an important nurse plant for seedling establishment.