Just spent a week in SW Ireland- did Dingle, Kenmare, Kinsale and the Cliffs. Had a wonderful time. Thanks to all who helped plan trip!!!! Please tell me what the vast undergrowth was that had a yellow flower - saw it all over the place.<BR><BR>Thanks again,<BR><BR>Kathy in Tennessee

Possibly Gorse?

If it's the same stuff I saw in France about this time last year, they told me it was &quot;gran de corza.&quot; When I looked it up it's rapeseed for vegetable oil. The original rapeseed plant was genetically modified to produce the edible canola oil.

My guess would be rapeseed, too. We saw huge fields of it between London and Bath last April. Pretty, isn't it?

Aaah I adore rapeseed fields from a distance because that intense yellow is absolutely my favourite colour... but the intensity of hayfever they induce is no laughing matter <BR><BR>Gorse is more bushy and dark green with yellow flowers - quite often grows in more desolate and wild places...

Unless it's MUCH warmer there than here it can't be rape.<BR><BR>It might have been daffodils. I kid you not<BR><BR>

It does seem a bit early for rapeseed. I usually have seen it in the UK in May, though I don't remember seeing huge fields of it in Ireland. Maybe it id earlier there.<BR><BR>Bill

I believe it was gorse and not rapeseed. It was like a great ticket undergrowth. I searched the internet and it looks like grose is the answer.<BR><BR>Thanks again,<BR>Kathy in Tennessee

Perhaps it was broom? See here for a picture:<BR>http://gold.weborama.fr/fcgi-bin/aimfar.fcgi?ID=20408&amp;rd=54&amp;ta=800x600&amp; da2=1049126069&amp;conn=modem<BR><BR>Broom is almost always in bloom this time of year in France. And as an aside, did you know this is how the Plantagenet family got its name? Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, always wore a sprig of it in his helmet. The French words for plant (plante) and broom (genet), put together as plante � genet, became the English rulers' name.<BR><BR>

Perhaps it was broom? See here for a picture:<BR>http://gold.weborama.fr/fcgi-bin/aimfar.fcgi?ID=20408&amp;rd=54&amp;ta=800x600&amp; da2=1049126069&amp;conn=modem<BR><BR>Broom is almost always in bloom this time of year in France. And as an aside, did you know this is how the Plantagenet family got its name? Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, always wore a sprig of it in his helmet. The French words for plant (plante) and broom (genet), put together as plante &agrave; genet, became the English rulers' name.<BR><BR>

It's Scotch Broom. We have it all over here in the Pacific NW. It is quite an irritant to those who are highly allergic...like my husband. When he starts to sneeze, I know it is blooming.

It could be Barberry... that's what the locals told us it was when we were there last April...

The yellow hillsides (mostly gorse) valleys (mostly Scotch broom) and fields (mostly rapeseed but also some mustard) in Ireland, England and Scotland are so pretty all through the spring and early summer.

I'm suprised no local has given you the<BR>name that it's known by in Ireland.<BR>&quot;Whin Bush&quot; A prickly type bush like plant that grows all over.

They are known as furze bushes and are a colorful weed.

It could well be gorse which is in bloom throughout the year.<BR>The old saying is:<BR><BR>'When Gorse is out of bloom, <BR>Kissing's out of season,'

Could be all of the discarded Leeds replica jerseys.

It is called Gorse

Winnie Ther Pooh always lands in Gorse. I was glad to see it, and not fall into it!

St Circ and Aurelia are likely correct. I, too, suspect it is Scottish broom. It does indeed grow all over the Pacific northwest and is considered an outside invader, not unlike kudzu in the south. It takes over native vegetation, thriving and multiplying. Preservationists try to uproot it, sponsoring days where people are encouraged to volunteer to remove it.