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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-071
Scotch Broom
Cytisus scoparius
Scotch Broom fixes nitrogen and covers itself in yellow pea-like flowers, whose buds can be pickled as a caper substitute and whose roasted seed makes a coffee substitute. It sheds thousands of explosively popping seed pods a year that stay viable for up to two decades, and the plant resprouts readily after cutting, fire or freezing. Its leaves, seeds and stems carry alkaloids toxic enough to kill livestock that eat it, so it must be kept out of pasture. It needs strongly acidic soil below pH 6.5 and fails on chalky or limestone ground, and it declines fast wherever summers run hot and humid.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–8
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Shrub- Soil pH
- 6–6.5
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 4–8 ft
- Mature spread
- 4–8 ft
- Plant spacing
- 6–12 ft
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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