Ulex europaeus Seeds | Gorse
LATIN NAME: Ulex europaeus
COMMON NAME: Gorse
Plant Profile
Gorse (Ulex europaeus) grows as a shrub in the family Fabaceae. Gorse is a fine, tough, spiny, golden-flowered shrub of heaths and coasts, and its great, blazing show of small, golden-yellow, pea-like flowers has made it a familiar of wild landscapes for a very long time. Tough, spiny shrub is a fine, hardy, easy plant of poor, sandy, sunny ground, though it spreads freely and is best kept to its own corner. It is a plant of open, well-drained, poor ground. It is the sort of plant that quietly justifies the space it occupies.
Science & Biotechnology
Botanists studying Fabaceae regularly include Ulex europaeus in comparative work, and the species also appears in horticultural trials aimed at gardeners and growers. Gorse has a steady and well-documented place in plant science, and shrub has been studied for its tough, spiny growth and its long record as a plant of heaths and the coasts. Contemporary seed practice means a grower can raise it confidently with standard techniques.
Uses & Benefits
Gardeners value Gorse for its ornamental character, and the plant also fits naturally into herb, vegetable and cutting gardens. Gorse is grown for great, blazing show of golden-yellow flowers. Small, pea-like flowers open in great, bright masses through spring, filling air with fine, sweet, coconut scent and drawing in bees and the butterflies. Tough, spiny shrub is a fine, hardy shelter and a soil-holding plant of poor, sandy, coastal ground, and golden flowers have long been a fine sight of wild landscape. A plant that has settled in will get along with only routine care.
Gorse blazes gold and coconut-scented on poor hillsides, fixing nitrogen and sheltering small birds; its flowers make a traditional country wine.
Growing from Seed
Gorse grows readily from seed. Use a fine, free-draining seed compost, scatter the seed evenly, cover it lightly and hold it just moist in good light. Move strong seedlings into individual pots, keep them in good light, and set them out when the weather and their size agree.
Our Take
Once established, Gorse largely looks after itself. The only critical period is germination, when the compost must stay evenly moist.
Related Reading
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