A
very common plant found in rough grassland, hedges, scrubs cliffs and dunes.
Gorse prefers acidic soil but can grow in a range of types. Gorse is a spiky evergreen shrub which grows very densely making it a great for small species of
animals which often nest or live inside the impenetrable shrub.
The
intriguing thing about Gorse is that its yellow flowers smell strongly of coconuts.
Gorse blooms through most of the year but with most around April to May.
The young seedlings have clover like leaves as they get
older they lose their leaves and instead develop these green spines, which are
about 10 to 30mm long.
The Gorse we found was placed in a small planting bed in
Platfields car park, due to it being in a car park the soil looked very dense
and compacted. There were the remains of a few other dead plants which couldn't
take the extreme compaction.
Gorse being dense and covered in thorns is a perfect habitat
for many animals’ foxes, rabbits, common lizards and even adders. This could
lead to massive improvements in numbers of animals as potential habitats
increase if gorse was planted in urban areas. Also Gorse attracts bees and a
valuable source of pollen for nectar and honey, any improvement to the
population of bees is very topical with bee’s number falling.
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