Broomweed

Gutierrezia sarothrae

Pollinator plant

Growing it

When	Flowers August to October; fruits September to November
Type	shrub
Sun	Full sun
Water	Low
Soil	pH 7–8.5
Hardiness	zone 3–8
Mature height	0.6 m
Mature spread	0.9 m
Spacing	0.6 m
Years to maturity	2
Bloom	Aug–Oct
Flower colour	Yellow not verified, a genus-level estimate
In bloom	August September October
Fruit	Sep–Nov
Native to	AB, SK

narrow linear leaves about 3 cm long; a spreading, branching crown

Where it has been recorded

BothSpecimensObservations

193 squares of about 28 km, each holding at least one record. A square is not a claim that the plant grows throughout it, and an unshaded square is unrecorded rather than empty. Darker squares hold more records, which follows roads and towns as much as it follows the plant. 60 herbarium specimens and 491 field observations this project may redraw. A filled dot is a pressed sheet somebody can re-examine; a hollow ring is a photograph identified by community agreement. Where the dots are dense is where people have looked, not where the plant is commonest, and empty ground is unsurveyed rather than unoccupied. How this map is made.

Which ecoregions the records fall in

Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 1125 records, high confidence
Fescue Grassland south AB: 750 records, high confidence
Moist Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 695 records, high confidence
Cypress Upland south AB / SK: 255 records, high confidence
Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 142 records, high confidence

These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.

See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.

Documented animals

23 documented relationships.

nectar for

Agapostemon femoratus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Agapostemon texanus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Black-tailed Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Ceratina acantha Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Crossidius discoideus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Crossidius pulchellus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Dianthidium subparvum LaManna et al. 2020
Drone Fly Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Euodynerus annulatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Exoprosopa doris Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Halictus confusus LaManna et al. 2020
Halictus ligatus LaManna et al. 2020
Halictus tripartitus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Heriades cressoni LaManna et al. 2020
Hunt's Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Megachile fidelis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Prionyx atratus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Sphex lucae Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Two-ranked Bumble Bee LaManna et al. 2020
Variegated Fritillary Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Villa alternata LaManna et al. 2020
Villa lateralis LaManna et al. 2020
Woodland Skipper LaManna et al. 2020

Also worth knowing

Safety

Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety

Buying it

About $25–$50 per plant (estimate), usually from a native-plant nursery. Estimate (shrub default); AB retail as of 2026

Where these numbers came from

Flower detail: not verified, a genus-level estimate