White Spanish broom or Common broom: how to tell them apart?
White Spanish broom and Common broom look alike and are often mixed up. Here is how to tell them apart, feature by feature, with their photos and the details to look for.
⚡ The quick answer
White Spanish broom
Cytisus multiflorus
Common broom
Cytisus scoparius
Common broom has bright yellow flowers, solitary or in pairs, along angular green shoots, whereas the white Spanish broom (white broom) bears clusters of white flowers on a leafier shrub.
🍃 Leaves
Deciduous, small, trifoliate, grey-green, sparse
Small, often reduced to mere scales on the green stems
🌸 Flowers
Numerous small white pea-shaped flowers, completely covering the shoots
Large bright yellow flowers, butterfly-shaped
🍎 Fruits
Small hairy pods
Flat black pods that burst open noisily when ripe
🪵 Bark
Fine, angular shoots, grey-green, not spiny
Angular green stems, photosynthetic even without leaves
📏 Size
1 to 3 m tall
1 to 2.5 m tall
🗺️ Habitat
Informal hedges, banks, gardens, poor, acid soils
Heathland, banks, acid and poor soils
⚠️ Toxicity
Seeds toxic if eaten (cytisine-type alkaloids), as in other brooms.
Seeds and young shoots toxic if eaten (alkaloids including sparteine), causing heart and digestive problems.
🔎 And from the Common broom side
Common broom has solitary or paired bright yellow flowers along angular green stems, whereas white Spanish broom bears clusters of white flowers on a leafier shrub.
🌿 Go further
Want to practise spotting these details on real photos? Floraneo offers profiles and quizzes for dozens of look-alike species.
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.