

Canary Broom Genista canariensis
Canary Broom is an introduced perennial tree, found in the lower 48 states. It grows to 5 ft and blooms Mar – Apr.
More about this plant
Genista canariensis is a species of flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae, known by the common names Canary broom, Canary Islands broom or florist's genista. It is native to the Canary Islands, but it grows as an introduced species in mainland Europe, especially Spain, and on other continents. It has been introduced to California and Washington State in the US. This is a vigorous upright evergreen shrub growing to 3 m (9.8 ft) tall by 1.5 m (4.9 ft) broad, with hairy green stems. The leaves are made up of oval-shaped blue-green leaflets each up to a centimeter long and densely hairy on the undersides. The raceme inflorescence holds up to 20 bright yellow pea-like flowers. The fruit is a legume pod one to two centimeters long containing several dark brown seeds. Wikipedia →
Growing & care
USDA PLANTS · TRY- Hardiness
- ≥ zone 9 derived from its U.S. range
- Height
- 5 ft
- Lifespan
- Perennial
- Foliage
- Broadleaf
Wildlife & pollinators
How pollinator value is scored →❧ Caterpillar hosts ~4 caterpillar species
Genista supports ~4 caterpillar species.
Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a modest genus for introduced plants — native genera typically support far more.
Recorded feeding on Genista in North America, including:
✦ Bees 1 bee visitor
1 native & managed bee species is documented visiting Canary Broom :
How we know this (1) Methods & honest limits
A recorded categorical fact: each species is tagged C3 (standard), C4 (heat/water-efficient) or CAM (succulent, night-time CO₂ uptake) — or a facultative combination. We only show a trait card for the noteworthy C4/CAM cases; C3 is the unremarkable majority, kept in the data but not surfaced as a card.
Sources for this entry (20) Open & cited
Cite this page Open data, please attribute
PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).
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