Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Fabales > Fabaceae > Ulex > Ulex europaeus

Ulex europaeus (common gorse; Genet; Gorse)

Synonyms: Genista europaea (homotypic)
Language: French; German; Russian

Wikipedia Abstract

Ulex europaeus (gorse, common gorse, furze or whin) is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to portions of Europe from the northern United Kingdom south to Portugal, and from the western Republic of Ireland east to Galicja in Poland and Ukraine.
View Wikipedia Record: Ulex europaeus

Infraspecies

Ulex europaeus europaeus
Ulex europaeus latebracteatus

Invasive Species

View ISSG Record: Ulex europaeus

Attributes

Edible [1]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [1]  Hermaphrodite
Leaf Type [1]  Deciduous
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [1]  Bees, Flies, Beetles
Scent [1]  The flowers are strongly scented of coconut; Another report says that the flowers have a smell of vanilla with undertones of orange or pineapple;
Structure [1]  Shrub
Usage [1]  A beautiful yellow dye is obtained from the flowers; It is orange according to another report; Gorse is very tolerant of maritime exposure, it can be used as a windbreak hedge in the most exposed positions, making an impenetrable barrier with its vicious thorns; Planted for soil stabilization on sandy substrates; Gorse is an excellent pioneer species for poor soils and areas with maritime exposure. It is fast-growing, feeds the soil with nitrogen and provides good conditions for woodland trees to become established. These trees will eventually out-compete the gorse, which is unable to reproduce well in the shady conditions and will thus gradually die out; The plant has an old reputation as a pesticide, the soaked seed being used against fleas; The wood burns very well, it was much used in the past for kindling, heating bakers ovens etc; The ashes from the burnt wood are rich in potassium and can be used in making soap; This soap can be made by mixing the ashes with a vegetable oil, or mixing them with clay and forming them into balls; The ashes are also an excellent fertilizer;
Height [1]  4.92 feet (1.5 m)
Width [1]  4.92 feet (1.5 m)
Light Preference [3]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Acidity [3]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [3]  Mostly Infertile
Soil Moisture [3]  Moist
View Plants For A Future Record : Ulex europaeus

Protected Areas

Predators

Consumers

Mutual (symbiont) 
Coltricia perennis[5]
Parasitized by 
Erysiphe trifolii[5]
Ganoderma australe (Southern Bracket)[5]
Ganoderma lucidum[5]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 2PLANTATT - Attributes of British and Irish Plants: Status, Size, Life History, Geography and Habitats, M. O. Hill, C. D. Preston & D. B. Roy, Biological Records Centre, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (2004)
♦ 3ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 4New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Plant-SyNZ™ database
♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 6Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 7Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0