This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

Genista aetnensis (Biv.) DC.

The Mount Etna broom is a species endemic to the sloping areas around the volcano. In Zafferana Etnea (Catania) and, namely, in the park around Villa Leonardi, there is a remarkable specimen, 39.3-ft high and with two trunks: one has a circumference of 5.9 ft, while the other reaches 7.87 ft. This tree is about 80 years old.

Botanical Card

The Etna broom, an endemic species in Sicily, belongs to the Fabaceae family; it is, therefore, a legume, and, as such, a nitrogen fixer. It has an arboreal bearing, unlike the other brooms which normally grow as shrubs. It averagely reaches 26.2-32.8 ft in height and up to 26.2 in width when ripe, while it can grow spontaneously on the hilly and mountain slopes of Mount Etna. Its foliage is wide and irregular, while the lanceolated leaves (appearing from October to April) are covered with white wool and fall when the plant is about to flower.

The Etna broom requires constant exposure to the sun, to survive in the extreme conditions on volcanic soil made of lava fields and black stones. It thus prefers poor and dry soils.
Before the creation of the Etna Park, it was used for coal.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)