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Scotch
Broom; Cytisus scoparius (L.) Link Pea
Family; LEGUMINOSÆ (FABACEÆ)
The
reed or the broom is the tree sacred to the twelfth moon of the year
starting on October 28th and ending on November 24th.
The ogham is nGetal. This
tree is useful in "cleaning up" spiritual or mental messes.
It is used to correct or heal damage or injury.
For instance, if you are having malevolent thoughts, emotions, or
actions, use the broom to help you get rid of them. Think of this tree as the herald of new beginnings.
On
the mundane level the broom has many uses.
One obvious use is using the stems to fashion a besom.
A decoction of broom is useful for gout, sciatica, painful
joints, malaria, and fever. Take
care because too large a dose can cause extreme bouts of vomiting. Scotch
Broom is a very common big bushy weed. Some people will object to
calling it a weed. Some people think the moon is made of cheese. Scotch
Broom is weedy even though ordinary vegetable-gardeners may not think
so.
Introduced
to the Pacific Northwest by Captain Colquhoun Grant of Sooke, Vancouver
Island, around 1850, Scotch Broom quickly invaded coastlines, meadows,
roadsides, clearcuts and other open sunny areas. Because of its wanton
reproduction, forming sometimes choking colonies, it has long been
considered too much of a good thing. It
has wiry, grooved evergreen twigs, but also tiny clover-like leaves in
summer, especially prominent on the young plants only a foot or two
tall. The slender twiggy branches are tough to break, flexible and
strike me as quite the thing for broom-making. Probably they should be
gathered for this purpose during fall or winter. Though
sporadic flowers can be seen every month (even December and
January) the main explosion of yellow is from late April into May and
June, when it erupts into scented bright yellow or red-spotted blossoms,
of piercing drama. Everybody knows it then. Allergy-sufferers curse its
pollen. Bees joyfully court it. In August the flat seedpods, an inch or
two long, hairy on the edge, and very dark, have dried enough to explode
with popping noises, thereby making meadows lively with sound.
A
great plus is Broom's ability to fix nitrogen through root-nodule
symbiosis. Meaning, unlike most plants, which grow poorly in soils low
in nitrogen, Broom thrives by simply making its own nitrogen even
as porcupines make their own armor of needles. Uproot a Broom and you
can see plainly little roundish swellings: these do the trick. Most
members of the pea family (leguminosæ), besides a few other plants such
as alders, can do this. The result is a richer soil every year. It is
a short-lived plant, quickly reaching about 6 to 12 feet tall, then
dying and presenting a scrawny, scratchy mass of tinder: dangerous fuel
for brush fires. Though the fresh green plant is easily sliced or cut,
the dry dead wood is hard, brittle and incendiary. A spiny broom
called Gorse, Furze or Whin is Ulex europæus, neither as common
or well known, but also a weedy yellow-blossomed introduced shrub.
Dyer's Broom, Genista tinctoria, is still another yellow-flowered
wild bushy weed, of even less consequence. In
bygone times the flowerbuds were pickled as caper substitutes by some
folks. A tea of the plant was used to combat gallstones, and other
therapeutic uses prescribed. Some people brewed a coffee from the
roasted seeds. California Quail are said to eat the seeds. However,
since the plant contains toxic alkaloids it should be considered
poisonous.  In
the Language of Flowers, Broom signifies variously: mirth, neatness or
humility. The neatness is obvious for a broom-plant. The mirth
is a joke beyond my understanding; the humility may initially
seem at odds with such a conquering globetrotter, but must have
reference to its being used to sweep dust.From
A Modern Herbal by Mrs. M. Grieve Its
long, slender, erect and tough branches grow in large, close fascicles,
thus rendering it available for broom-making, hence its English name.
Broom was used in ancient Anglo-Saxon medicine and by the Welsh
physicians of the early Middle Ages. It had a place in the London
Pharmacopceia of 1618 and is included in the British Pharmacopoeia of
the present day. Bartholomew
says of Broom: 'Genesta hath that name
of bytterness for it is full of bytter to mannes taste. And is a shrub
that growyth in a place that is forsaken, stony and untylthed. Presence
thereof is witnesse that the ground is bareyne and drye that it groweth
in. And hath many braunches knotty and hard. Grene in winter and yelowe
floures in somer thyche (the which) wrapped with hevy (heavy) smell and
bitter sauer (savour). And ben, netheles, moost of vertue.' Description---It
grows to a height of 3 to 5 feet and produces numerous long, straight,
slender bright green branches, tough and very flexible, smooth and
prominently angled. The leaves are alternate, hairy when young the lower
ones shortly stalked, with three small, oblong leaflets, the upper ones,
near the tips of the branches, sessile and small, often reduced to a
single leaflet. Professor G. Henslow (Floral Rambles in Highways and
Byways) says with reference to the 'leaves' of the broom: 'It has
generally no leaves, the green stems undertaking their duties instead.
If it grows in wet places, it can develop threefoliate leaves.' The
large bright yellow, papilionaceous, fragrant flowers, in bloom from
April to July, are borne on axillary footstalks, either solitary or in
pairs, and are succeeded by oblong, flattened pods, about 1 1/2 inch
long, hairy on the edges, but smooth on the sides. They are nearly black
when mature. They burst with a sharp report when the seeds are ripe
flinging them to a distance by the spring-iike twisting of the valves or
sides of the pods. The continuous crackling of the bursting seed-vessels
on a hot, sunny July day is readily noticeable. The flowers have a great
attraction for bees, they contain no honey, but abundance of pollen. 'In
flowers without honey, such as the Broom, there is a curious way of
"exploding" to expel the pollen. In the Broom the stigma lies
in the midst of the five anthers of the longer stamens, and when a bee
visits the flower those of the shorter explode and disperse their pollen
on the bee pressing upon the closed edges of the keel petal. "The
shock is not enough to drive the bee away . . . The split now quickly
extends further . . . when a second and more violent explosion
occurs." The style was horizontal with a flattened end below the
stigma; but when freed from restraint it curls inwards, forming more
than a complete spiral turn. It springs up and strikes the back of the
bee with its stigma. The bee then gathers pollen with its mouth and
legs.' (From The Fertilization of Flowers, by Professor H.
Mueller, pp. 195-6) History---As
a heraldic device, the Broom was adopted at a very early period as the
badge of Brittany. Geoffrey of Anjou thrust it into his helmet at the
moment of going into battle, that his troops might see and follow him.
As he plucked it from a steep bank which its roots had knit together he
is reputed to have said: 'This golden plant, rooted firmly amid rock,
yet upholding what is ready to fall, shall be my cognizance. I will
maintain it on the field, in the tourney and in the court of justice.'
Fulke of Anjou bore it as his personal cognizance, and Henry II of
England, his grandson, as a claimant of that province, also adopted it,
its mediaeval name Planta genista, giving the family name of
Plantagenets to his line. It may be seen on the Great Seal of Richard I,
this being its first official, heraldic appearance in England. Another
origin is claimed for the heraldic use of the Broom in Brittany. A
prince of Anjou assassinated his brother there and seized his kingdom,
but being overcome by remorse, he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in
expiation of his crime. Every night on the journey, he scourged himself
with a brush of 'genets,' or genista, and adopted this plant as his
badge, in perpetual memory of his repentance. St. Louis of France
continued the use of this token, founding a special order on the
occasion of his marriage in the year 1234. The Colle de Genet,
the collar of the order, was composed alternately of the fleur-de-lys of
France and the Broomflower, the Broomflower being worn on the coat of
his bodyguard of a hundred nobles, with the motto, 'Exaltat humiles,'
'He exalteth the lowly.' The order was held in great esteem and its
bestowal regarded as a high honour. Our Richard II received it, and a
Broom plant, with open, empty pods, can be seen ornamenting his tomb in
Westminster Abbey. In 1368 Charles V of France bestowed the insignia of
the Broom pod on his favourite chamberlain, and in 1389 Charles VI gave
the same decoration to his kinsmen. The
Broom is the badge of the Forbes. Thus, according to Sandford, it was
the bonny broom which the Scottish clan of Forbes wore in their bonnets
when they wished to arouse the heroism of their chieftains, and which in
their Gaelic dialect they called bealadh, in token of its beauty.
'This
humble shrub,' writes Baines, 'was not less distinguished than the Rose
herself during the civil wars of the fourteenth century.' Apart
from its use in heraldry, the Broom has been associated with several
popular traditions. In some parts, it used to be considered a sign of
plenty, when it bore many flowers. The flowering tops were used for
house decoration at the Whitsuntide festival but it was considered
unlucky to employ them for menial purposes when in full bloom. An
old Suffolk tradition runs: 'If you sweep the house
with blossomed Broom in May You are sure to sweep
the head of the house away.' And
a yet older tradition is extant that when Joseph and Mary were fleeing
into Egypt, the plants of the Broom were cursed by the Virgin because
the crackling of their ripe pods as they touched them in passing risked
drawing the attention of the soldiers of Herod to the fugitives. The
Broom has been put to many uses. When planted on the sides of steep
banks, its roots serve to hold the earth together. On some parts of our
coast, it is one of the first plants that grow on the sand-dunes after
they have been somewhat consolidated on the surface by the interlacing
stems of the mat grasses and other sand-binding plants. It will flourish
within reach of sea spray, and, like gorse, is a good sheltering plant
for sea-side growth. Broom
is grown extensively as a shelter for game, and also in fresh
plantations among more important species of shrubs, to protect them from
the wind till fully established. The
shrub seldom grows large enough to furnish useful wood, but when its
stem acquires sufficient size, it is beautifully veined, and being very
hard, furnishes the cabinetmaker with most valuable material for
veneering. The
twigs and branches are serviceable not only for making brooms, but are
also used for basket-work, especially in the island of Madeira. They are
sometimes used in the north of England and Scotland for thatching
cottages and cornricks, and as substitutes for reeds in making fences or
screens. The
bark of the Common Broom yields an excellent fibre, finer but not so
strong as that of the Spanish Broom, which has been employed from very
ancient times- it is easily separated by macerating the twigs in water
like flax. From the large quantity of fibrous matter contained, the
shoots have been used in the manufacture of paper and cloth. Tannin
exists in considerable amount in the bark, which has been used in former
times for tanning leather. Before
the introduction of Hops, the tender Freen tops were often used to
communicate a bitter flavour to beer, and to render it more
intoxicating. Gerard
says of the Broom: 'The common Broom
groweth almost everywhere in dry pastures and low woods. It flowers at
the end of April or May, and then the young buds of the flowers are to
be 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
buds were evidently a favourite delicacy, for they appeared on three
separate tables at the Coronation feast of James II. The flowers served
the double purpose of an appetizer and a corrective. Sometimes
a bunch of green Broom tied up with coloured ribbons was carried by the
guests at rustic weddings instead of rosemary, when that favourite
aromatic herb proved scarce. Withering
(Arrangement of Plants) stated that the green tops were a good
winter food for sheep, preventing rot and dropsy in them. The
blossoms were used for making an unguent to cure the gout, and Henry
VIII used to drink a water made from the flowers against the surfeit. Dodoens
(Herbal, 1606) recommended a decoction of the tops in dropsy and
for 'stoppages of the liver.' Gerard
tells us: 'The decoction of the twigs and tops of Broom doth cleanse and
open the liver, milt and kidnies.' Culpepper
considered the decoction of Broom to be good not only for dropsy, but
also for black jaundice, ague, gout, sciatica and various pains of the
hips and joints. Some
of the old physicians burned the tops to ashes and infused the salts
thus extracted in wine. They were known as Salts of Broom (Sal Genistae). The
powdered seeds are likewise administered and sometimes a tincture is
employed. Bruised Broom seeds were formerly used infused in rectified
spirit, allowed to stand two weeks and then strained. A tablespoonful in
a glass of peppermint water was taken daily for liver complaints and
ague. The
leaves or young tops yield a green dye. The seeds have similar properties to the tops, and have also been employed medicinally, though they are not any longer used officially. They have served as a substitute for coffee. |
The
broom is native to Great Britain and grows in abundance along the
heaths, moors, and in open spaces.
From
Western Europe originally, it is the best known of various kinds of
Brooms, named because useful sweeping brooms are easily made from the
twiggy brush. Why it is called Scotch or Scot's Broom is a
mystery, though it is also called Common Broom or Broom, period. The
scientific name Cytisus is adapted from an ancient Greek name;
the Latin specific name scoparius means broom-like.
The
flowers are so unstinting and pretty that garden versions and hybrids
such as 'Moonlight' are planted in masses along freeways and in other
barren, ugly sites. For most Brooms tolerate with easy nonchalance
baking sunny sites and poor soil. Severe wintry blasts alone sometimes
kill them back. But nobody pities the Broom. We know darn well how it
returns with strength unabated in spring. Cast-iron weeds they are, or
admirable, tough garden plants, according to how many we have.