Scientific name: Ulex europaeus L.
Common name: Gorse
Description
Habit: A densely spiny, shrub, to 2 m high.
Stems: Erect, spreading, bushy; bluish-green and sparsely covered with black hairs.
Leaves and spines: Alternate, pinnate, with 3 leaflets on young plants; bluish-green and sparsely covered with black hairs; leaves reduced to scales or weak spines on mature plants; spines very strong, up to 25 mm long and deeply grooved.
Flowers: Yellow, zygomorphic, 15-20 mm across, 1-few in irregular racemes, intermixed with spines; calyx 10-16 mm, split into 2 lips, upper lip shortly 2-toothed, hairs spreading, with a 2 (or greater) mm bracteole on each side between the calyx-lips; petals 5; forming 2 free wings, 2 are fused to form lower keel and 1 conceals the stamens and carpel; petals partly united with each other and the stamens; stamens 10 all fused to form a tube; carpel 1, style 1.
Fruits: A legume pod, 2-6-seeded, more than half enclosed within calyx.
Habitat: Hedges, scrub, heathy ground, bog-margins.
Distribution: Widespread and locally common, but rare over large areas.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No