BROOM

20th April 2024

Photo Credit: Carine Carnier (Getty Images), CANVA

QUOTATION

Ceres most bounteous lady

…

Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims,

Which spongy April at thy het betrims

To make chaste nymphs cold crowns; and thy broom groves,

Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,

Being lass-lorn;

IRIS: The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 2

BROOM (Cytisus scoparius)

The vibrant yellow flowers of Broom might have been some consolation for the ‘dismissed, lass-lorn, bachelor’. Like Gorse, which also has bright yellow flowers, this time of year, Broom is one of the signs of the natural world re-emerging and flourishing.

John Gerard (1597) tells us that ‘the common Broome groweth almost every where in dry pastures and low woods’, and that ‘Broome floureth in the end of April or May, and then the young buds of the floures are to bee gathered and laid in pickle or salt, which afterwards being washed or boiled, are used for sallads, as Capers be, and be eaten with no less delight’.

Broom is a shrub in the Pea Family (Fabaceae) and has yellow, pea-like, flowers, with green leaves grouped in threes, and long, slender stems. Broom and Gorse can look very similar but Broom does not have the spines and the twigs were often bound together to make brooms for sweeping. Broom has green pods in summer which turn black and sometimes make a loud cracking noise as they burst open in the sun.

More Information

BSBI Plant Atlas 2020: Cytisus scoparius

Folger Shakespeare: Search Shakespeare’s Works

Gerard, J. !597 The Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes (1636 edition accessed via Archive.org)

Wildlife Trusts: Broom