#1724 - Viminaria juncea - Native Broom
Also known as Golden Spray or Swishbush. The Noongar peoples know the plant as koweda. Originally described in 1795 by Heinrich Adolf Schrader as Sophora juncea. The current binomial means "rush-like switch".
Native Broom is the only member of its genus, and it grows wild in moist temperate parts of most States. In swamps it can it can grow in extensive stands, and into a tall loose shrub where crowded. Left to its own devices can grow a single trunk 6 m high, with dark fibrous bark.
It can be kept as a garden shrub, amenable to trimming.
Usually considered leafless, except on the youngest plants and stems but the leaves are in fact tiny scales and most of the plant consists of flattened, stringy, green stems up to 25 mm long.
It grows rapidly in many soil types, and light conditions, as well as being frost resistant. Honestly, it’s amazing more people don’t plant the stuff. In November the branches become thickly lined with small yellow pea flowers 1 cm long, smelling faintly of clover. Seed production is healthy, with one small bean per pod, easily propagated.
Ambergate Reserve, south of Busselton