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Genista canariensis; photograph (c) Elizabete Marchante, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Elizabete Marchante, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-17

Genista canariensis L.

Canary broom; Canary Island broom; Canary Islands Broom; Florist’s Genista

Fabaceae · Canary Is.

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Genista canariensis, photograph (c) Elizabete Marchante, some rights reserved (CC BY)Genista canariensis, photograph (c) Elizabete Marchante, some rights reserved (CC BY)Genista canariensis, photograph (c) franciscodocampo, some rights reserved (CC BY)Genista canariensis, photograph (c) Andreas Taeger, some rights reserved (CC BY)Genista canariensis, photograph (c) Andreas Taeger, some rights reserved (CC BY)Genista canariensis, photograph (c) Andreas Taeger, some rights reserved (CC BY) 57 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
13.7°C
Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
443mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–49DLI
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

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. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Genista canariensis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Genista

Genista is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae, native to open habitats such as moorland and pasture in Europe and western Asia. They include species commonly called broom, though the term may also refer to other genera, including Cytisus and Chamaecytisus. Brooms in other genera are sometimes considered synonymous with Genista: Echinospartum, Retama, Spartium, Stauracanthus, and Ulex.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Genista", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (328 mm of 440 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 15.3 °C against a yearly mean of 17.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

440 mm in the median year at the habitat, 328 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 77 mm, driest month July at 3 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 394 mm to 622 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 443 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 440 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: 20 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.7 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 5.8 °C to 15.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.0 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 13.7 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 63% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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 Genista canariensis through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 13.7 °C; 440 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 20–49RH 60–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 39 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C16 / 10–1816 / 11–1817 / 12–1817 / 13–1818 / 15–1920 / 19–2223 / 21–2423 / 22–2522 / 20–2321 / 16–2219 / 13–2117 / 11–19
Night °C14 / 6–1614 / 6–1614 / 7–1614 / 7–1615 / 9–1717 / 13–1919 / 17–2120 / 17–2220 / 14–2118 / 11–2117 / 9–1915 / 7–17
Rain mm62 / 55–8564 / 55–9253 / 44–7627 / 22–3411 / 9–145 / 3–83 / 1–55 / 3–613 / 10–1748 / 39–6172 / 63–9977 / 65–130
DLI22 / 19–2628 / 25–3237 / 34–3942 / 41–4446 / 45–4749 / 47–5048 / 45–4944 / 43–4638 / 36–4030 / 28–3323 / 20–2720 / 17–24
RH %61 / 48–6362 / 48–6461 / 46–6362 / 47–6562 / 45–6563 / 40–6760 / 35–6761 / 38–6763 / 45–6663 / 51–6662 / 51–6462 / 51–64

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 24% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 10.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.5 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 39 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (214 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 1233:3262 (28.325, -16.875). 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 39 distinct grid cells holding 214 of the 218 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1233:3262 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 24% land and none of the 11 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.50_-16.875, lapse-corrected +427 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 565 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.
NativeCanary Is. · introduced: India, Sri Lanka, Oregon, Washington, 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 marker28.533, -16.277 · in the densest population, 249 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 249 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 214 of them in the land cells it reads, of 218 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 56 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 63 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 31 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.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 249 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Genista canariensis, photograph 1did not loadGenista canariensis, photograph 2did not loadGenista canariensis, photograph 3did not loadGenista canariensis, photograph 4did not loadGenista canariensis, photograph 5did not loadGenista canariensis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Elizabete Marchante, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) franciscodocampo, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Andreas Taeger, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Sonchus congestus Sonchus congestus Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Elizabete MarchanteSalvia broussonetii Salvia broussonetii Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Ben JobsonDigitalis canariensis Digitalis canariensis Canary Island Foxglove Photo: CC BY, Matthieu Le GoïcPericallis tussilaginis Pericallis tussilaginis Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Lídia CarreraLotus berthelotii Lotus berthelotii Coralgem Photo: CC BY, pericurricAeonium urbicum Aeonium urbicum Crassulaceae Photo: CC BY, Vítor Jorge

Other Genista 35 in the reference

Genista acanthoclada Genista acanthoclada Thorny Broom Photo: CC0, author not statedGenista albida Genista albida White Genista Photo: CC BY, RomanGenista anglica Genista anglica Petty whin Photo: CC0, author not statedGenista carinalis Genista carinalis Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizGenista cinerea Genista cinerea Ash-coloured Broom Photo: CC BY, Louis AuregliaGenista depressa Genista depressa Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Југ Genista dorycnifolia Fabaceae Genista etnensis Genista etnensis Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, H. ZellGenista falcata Genista falcata Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Diego Rodríguez HernándezGenista florida Genista florida Floriferous Greenweed Photo: CC BY, Carminda SantosGenista germanica Genista germanica Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Николай СоболевGenista hirsuta Genista hirsuta Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Duarte Frade all 36 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Avornela canariensis; Cytiscus canariensis; Cytiscus racemosus; Cytisus canariensis; Cytisus canariensis var. ramosissimus and 23 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Canary Is.
Wild records
249 in range · 56 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
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 19 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (18 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 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 28.50_-16.875, lapse-corrected +427 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (24% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media 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 56 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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