Genista florida
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Genista florida' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Synonyms
- G. leptoclada Spach
- G. polygalifolia DC.
- G. florida var. maroccana Ball
- G. florida var. atlantica E. K. Balls, nom. ined.
Other taxa in genus
- Genista aetnensis
- Genista anglica
- Genista cinerea
- Genista delphinensis
- Genista ephedroides
- Genista falcata
- Genista germanica
- Genista hispanica
- Genista horrida
- Genista januensis
- Genista lobelii
- Genista lydia
- Genista monosperma
- Genista nyssana
- Genista pilosa
- Genista 'Porlock'
- Genista radiata
- Genista sagittalis
- Genista scorpius
- Genista sericea
- Genista sphaerocarpa
- Genista sylvestris
- Genista tenera
- Genista tinctoria
- Genista villarsii
A shrub up to 8 ft high in the wild; shoots erect, distinctly grooved, downy. Leaves simple, shortly stalked, elliptic to oblanceolate or linear, mostly 5⁄8 to 7⁄8 in. long, rarely to 1 in., and 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. wide, but in some plants only 1⁄24 to 1⁄12 in. wide, silky-hairy on both sides, but especially beneath. Flowers yellow, 1⁄2 in. long, borne towards the top of the shoots, making racemes or leafy panicles 1 to 3 in. long; standard petal broadly ovate with at most a few scattered silky hairs. Pods narrowly oblong, silky, with three to eight seeds.
Native of Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. This species seems to be little known in cultivation, but the Moroccan plants are said to be very beautiful, with silvery leaves and fragrant flowers (Journ. R.H.S., Vol. 69, p. 358, and Vol. 90, p. 386). But judging from the material from Morocco in the Kew Herbarium the plants there fit into the normal range of variation of the species.