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Chamaecytisus proliferus; photograph Tigerente, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SATigerente, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Chamaecytisus proliferus (L.f.) Link

Fabaceae · Canary Is.

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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Chamaecytisus proliferus, photograph Tigerente, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsChamaecytisus proliferus, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsChamaecytisus proliferus, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsChamaecytisus proliferus, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsChamaecytisus proliferus, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsChamaecytisus proliferus, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.6°C
Record low 9.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
448mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–49DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Chamaecytisus proliferus, synonym Cytisus proliferus, is a small spreading evergreen shrub or tree in the pea family Fabaceae endemic to the Canary Islands. One of its subspecies, Chamaecytisus proliferus subsp. palmensis, synonyms including Chamaecytisus palmensis and Cytisus palmensis, known as tagasaste or tree lucerne, is a well known tropical forage crop. It is native to the dry volcanic slopes of the Canary Islands, but it is now grown in Australia, New Zealand and many other parts of the world.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Chamaecytisus proliferus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (354 mm of 454 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 14.2 °C against a yearly mean of 16.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

454 mm in the median year at the habitat, 354 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 96 mm, driest month July at 2 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 345 mm to 697 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 448 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 454 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 49 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 11.6 °C, the absolute minimum 9.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 22.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 11.8 °C in January and February (across the grid cells of the range 6.0 °C to 15.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.1 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 49 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +545 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Chamaecytisus proliferus through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest months January and February, mean nightly low 11.8 °C; 454 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°22.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER9.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 23–49RH 49–60%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 118 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C15 / 10–1715 / 10–1716 / 12–1816 / 12–1818 / 15–1920 / 19–2223 / 22–2523 / 22–2522 / 20–2420 / 16–2218 / 13–2016 / 11–18
Night °C12 / 6–1612 / 6–1512 / 7–1613 / 8–1614 / 9–1717 / 13–2020 / 17–2220 / 17–2219 / 14–2117 / 11–2015 / 9–1813 / 7–17
Rain mm62 / 47–9168 / 56–10555 / 35–8325 / 18–409 / 5–143 / 2–52 / 0–33 / 2–613 / 7–1945 / 33–7673 / 55–11196 / 70–155
DLI25 / 20–2831 / 27–3339 / 35–4144 / 41–4547 / 46–4849 / 48–5049 / 47–5046 / 44–4740 / 37–4233 / 29–3526 / 22–2923 / 18–25
RH %58 / 48–6257 / 48–6355 / 46–6258 / 47–6458 / 45–6456 / 40–6449 / 33–6450 / 36–6456 / 45–6559 / 50–6559 / 50–6360 / 50–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 118 grid cells holding the 616 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1239:3285 (28.025, -15.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 22.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 118 distinct grid cells holding 616 of the 616 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1239:3285 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.00_-15.625, lapse-corrected +545 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 654 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 5354646 (Cytisus proliferus L.f., 1649 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeCanary Is. · introduced: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, India, Jawa, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Hawaii, California · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker28.23, -16.7 · in the densest population, 700 records (98% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 713 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 616 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 165 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 610 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 97 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 5354646 (Cytisus proliferus L.f.): Kew's file holds it as Cytisus proliferus L.f. (synonym under Chamaecytisus proliferus (L.f.) Link); 1,649 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 713 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Chamaecytisus proliferus, photograph 1did not loadChamaecytisus proliferus, photograph 2did not loadChamaecytisus proliferus, photograph 3did not loadChamaecytisus proliferus, photograph 4did not loadChamaecytisus proliferus, photograph 5did not loadChamaecytisus proliferus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Tigerente, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (5).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Cistus symphytifolius Cistus symphytifolius Cistaceae Photo: CC BY, Elizabete Marchante Hemionitis pulchella Pteridaceae Aeonium aureum Aeonium aureum Crassulaceae Photo: CC BY, Christina s.l.Lotus campylocladus Lotus campylocladus Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, William StephensAeonium spathulatum Aeonium spathulatum Crassulaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedEchium virescens Echium virescens Tower of jewels Photo: CC BY, Borja Fierro

Other Chamaecytisus 15 in the reference

Chamaecytisus albus Chamaecytisus albus Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Dimitǎr BoevskiChamaecytisus austriacus Chamaecytisus austriacus Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Dmitriy BochkovChamaecytisus elongatus Chamaecytisus elongatus Fabaceae Photo: CC0, John Kenrick GibsonChamaecytisus eriocarpus Chamaecytisus eriocarpus Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Salza PalpurinaChamaecytisus hirsutus Chamaecytisus hirsutus Clustered Broom Photo: CC BY, Daniel LinzbauerChamaecytisus leiocarpus Chamaecytisus leiocarpus Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Michael Wolf (Webseite)Chamaecytisus lindemannii Chamaecytisus lindemannii Fabaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated Chamaecytisus podolicus Fabaceae Chamaecytisus purpureus Chamaecytisus purpureus Purple Broom Photo: CC BY, Matteo MartiniChamaecytisus pygmaeus Chamaecytisus pygmaeus Fabaceae Photo: CC0, John Kenrick GibsonChamaecytisus ratisbonensis Chamaecytisus ratisbonensis Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Patrick Hacker Chamaecytisus rochelii Fabaceae all 16 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cytisus proliferus; Diaxulon proliferus. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikipedia

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(L.f.) Link
Native to
Canary Is.
Wild records
713 in range · 165 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Chamaecytisus proliferus (L.f.) Link (plant_name_id 2715412), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1649 records of GBIF's key 5354646, Cytisus proliferus L.f. (Kew's file holds it as Cytisus proliferus L.f. (synonym under Chamaecytisus proliferus (L.f.) Link)): the GBIF download; 49 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (24 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 15 at a herbarium, 10 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.00_-15.625, lapse-corrected +545 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata not taken: two items answeredasked 2026-10-22not taken: two items carry Kew's IPNI identifier 485975-1, POWO 485975-1 (Q2801444, Q15528472)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 25 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…