Common broom

In May golden broom cloaks the slopes of the Ösling, and the town of Wiltz celebrates its flowering with a colourful parade.

Common broom is a shrub 1–2 m tall with almost leafless, green, angular stems that have taken over the job of photosynthesis. In spring it is covered in masses of bright yellow, pea-like flowers, and in summer it produces black pods that burst open with a crack, flinging out the seeds. It grows on acid, poor soils – in clearings, on heathland and on sunny slopes – and, thanks to its root-nodule bacteria, enriches them with nitrogen. Its pliable stems were once tied into brooms, which gave the species its name.

Significance in the country

In Luxembourg the flowering of broom is the symbol of spring in the Ösling, and for decades Wiltz has held the Geenzefest at Whitsun – a broom festival with a colourful parade.

Where it grows

Most abundant on the acid slate soils of the Ösling in the north of the country, especially around Wiltz, Clervaux and Vianden; scarcer on the sandstones of the Gutland.

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