Hardiness zones
Sunset 10-13
USDA 9 - 10
Landscape Use: Typically an invasive native woody perennial shrub, otherwise cultivated varieties are occasionally used as low maintenance ground covers in open planting spaces.
Form & Character: Upright and rounded to prostrate and spreading with extremely pungent shoot tissues.
Growth Habit: Moderate to rapid growth up to 10 with equal spread.
Foliage/Texture: Small, linear to lanceolate, sessile green leaves to 1" long on green stems. Older stems woody. Very pungent. Fine texture
Flowers & Fruits: Desert broom is a dioecious plant having male and female flowers on separate plants. Female flowers are surprisingly showy, cream white. Male flowers are not showy.
Seasonal Color: Female white flowers in the fall.
Temperature: Heat loving
Light: Full sun
Soil: Thrives in desert soils
Watering: None
Pruning: An urban invader! How to get rid of it for good? Cut back severely to the ground in late summer or early fall. Then when growth of desert broom begins to re-occur (usually a few weeks after cutting), spray with a systemic herbicide like glyphosate (Round Up) to kill completely - it may require a couple of applications spaced about a month a part. If seedlings emerge within canopies of landscape shrubs, rouge at first notice as new seedlings of this plant grow a vigorous taproot (making difficult the 'yank' factor). Improved landscape cultivars are usually sheared.
Propagation: Wind blown seed as fruit dispersal is by wind. Seedlings emerge in spring.
Disease and pests: None (wish there was something or someone that would develop a taste for this pungent plant)
Additional comments: Desert broom is a case of reverse invasion. A native perennial that has invaded Phoenix! Found around drip emitters, culverts and washes.
Important note: Use only prostrate cultivated varieties in urban landscapes. Even those however have a tendency to revert to the wild type.Baccharis hybrid 'Starn' (P.P.A.F.) ThompsonTM is a superior prostrate growing hybrid cultivar for use as a xeric woody perennial ground cover. It was developed by Dr. Tommy Thompson and Dr. Chi Won Lee of the University of Arizona. Recently released, it is superior to Baccharis hybrid 'Centennial' (another prostrate cultivar) which is a female clone that's can set seed producing copious seedlings of mixed form and height. 'Starn' grows to about 3 feet tall by 4-5 feet wide, is evergreen with bright green foliage and inconspicuous flowers, and can function as a tough, low-maintenance, perennial ground cover for difficult planting sites in a desert city.
