Winged greenweed

Genista sagittalis, the winged greenweed or arrow-broom, is a low, decumbent subshrub of the Fabaceae family native to central and southern Europe, extending east into Anatolia and Ukraine. It is distinctive among brooms for its broadly winged, photosynthetic stems, which appear flattened into two or three longitudinal green wings on either side of a slender woody axis, giving the plant a jointed, arrow-like silhouette. From this prostrate woody framework rise short upright shoots ten to thirty centimetres tall, bearing small, alternate, hairy, lanceolate leaves and terminating in short, dense terminal racemes of bright yellow pea-flowers in late spring and early summer. The fruit is a small, hairy, flattened legume containing several hard seeds. The plant favours open pastures, heaths, and rocky banks on lime-poor soils.