robw95

I was in Southwest Ireland in early to mid May and this yellow bush/flower was growing everywhere. I assumed it was mustard but a woman in a village told me it was Furze Bush

Here is a pic I snapped on the Beara Peninsula that has the bush/flower:
http://gallery.me.com/robw95#100194

I googled Furze and found this reference but I'm not sure that this is the same thing:
http://www.wildflowersofireland.net/...ldflower=Gorse

Can any Irish or wildflower experts help me out?

Thanks. Rob

flanneruk

It's a bit difficult to tell.

Your picture looks like gorse. Most of the time what you see are lots of green thorn-like leaves, in big bushes - and usually what you're most aware of are the big bushes, even when they're in flower.

What the Wildflowers of Ireland site does is to focus in on the flowers (which you rarely see in such isolation), so its picture doesn't look like what people driving past a gorse clump will have seen.

Bushranger

I'd agree it'd probably be Gorse and though used as hedge rows in Ireland, it also seems to have found its way to NZ as a weed for farmers, just worthy of eradication.

We could probably even have it across the ditch downunder too though I haven't gone looking for it.

janisj

Yep - agree. Looks like gorse for sure

robw95

Thanks for the quick replies. Reading up on it a bit more I do think it is gorse (furze) which is what I was told it was initially. In reading the Wildflowers site again it says 'they line our country roads and particularly from February to May, when their flowers are in abundance'. That certainly fits the criteria for where I was and when.

Thanks again. Rob

hetismij

Funnily enough I saw lots of it along the Oregon coast in May too. It is deemed a noxious weed there though.

MissPrism

It blooms for most of the year.

When the gorse is not in bloom
Kissing is not in season

Padraig

hetismij wrote: "Funnily enough I saw lots of it along the Oregon coast in May too. It is deemed a noxious weed there though."

It is generally considered a weed plant in Ireland, too. I can't remember seeing it used as a hedgerow plant, probably because it's too difficult to manage. It's also difficult to eradicate.

It has three popular names in Ireland: gorse, furze, and whin.

janisj

Where you may have seen lots of it -- if you watch the Open championship when it is at St Andrews and other main venues. That thick stuff along the fairways is gorse.

traveller1959

It is called ulex europaeus - in English, as others have said, gorse or furze. It is very common all over Europe where the winters are not too cold (Ireland, Southern France, Spain etc.).

I had one bush in my garden, but it died last winter (when it was very cold).

Lawchick

It's a furze bush