Common Name: Moroccan broom
Type: Deciduous shrub
Family: Fabaceae
Native Range: Morocco
Zone: 7 to 10
Height: 10.00 to 20.00 feet
Spread: 8.00 to 10.00 feet
Bloom Time: June to August
Bloom Description: Yellow
Sun: Full sun
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Medium
Flower: Showy, Fragrant
Fruit: Showy
Tolerate: Rabbit, Deer, Drought
Culture
Easily grown in light sandy or gritty, well-drained soils in full sun. Tolerates heat, drought, poor soils and dry growing conditions. Site in locations protected from strong winds. Renewal pruning helps maintain attractive form and vigorous growth. May be difficult to grow from cuttings. Propagation is best from seed which is first soaked overnight and/or scarified. This shrub is unlikely to self-seed in the landscape, however, and is not considered to be invasive as is the common broom Cytisus scoparius.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Argyrocytisus, commonly called silver broom or pineapple broom, is a silver/gray-leaved evergreen to deciduous shrub or small tree in the legume family. It typically grows to 12’ tall and as wide, but infrequently will rise to as much as 20’ tall. It is native to forested areas of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Trifoliate leaves are densely covered with fine silver-gray hairs. Large, cone-shaped, terminal racemes (to 6” long) of pineapple-scented, deep yellow, pea-shaped flowers bloom late spring to early summer (June to early August). Flowers are followed by pea pod-like seed capsules (to 3” long) which are covered with silver-gray hairs. This shrub/tree is evergreen to semi-evergreen in mild winter locations, but deciduous near the northern edge of its growing range or in unusually cold winters.
RHS Award of Garden Merit in 1984.
Synonymous with and formerly known as Cytisus battandieri.
Genus name comes from the Greek words argyros meaning silver and cytisus (original genus name) in reference to the silver-gray leaves of this shrub/tree. Cytisus from Greek refers to several types of woody legumes.
Specific epithet honors Jules Aime Battandier (1848-1922), botanist, pharmacist and expert on the flora of Algeria.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems.
Uses
May be difficult to find in commerce. Ornamental landscape shrub/tree. May be sited along a sunny south facing wall. Protected slopes and hillsides. Espalier.