BROOM (Cytisus scoparius), a shrub of the pea family (Leguminosae) native to the temperate parts of Europe and Asia, found widely in Great Britain, and naturalized in North America. The leaves are small and their function is shared by the green stems. The bright yel low flowers scatter their pollen by an explosive mechanism ; the weight of a bee alighting on the flower causes the keel to split and the pollen to be shot out on to the insect's body. When ripe the black pods explode with a sudden twisting of the valves and scatter the seeds. The twigs have a bitter and nauseous taste and have long had a popular reputa tion as a diuretic ; the seeds have similar properties.
"Butcher's broom," a very different plant, known botani cally as Ruscus aculeatus, is a member of the family Liliaceae.
It is a small evergreen shrub found in copses and woods, but rare in the southern half of Eng land. The stout angular stems bear leaves reduced to small scales, which subtend flattened leaf-like branches (cladodes) with a sharp apex. The small whitish flowers are borne on the face of the cladodes; the berry is bright red.