A Prickly Customer- Common Gorse

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A flowering gorse bush. Image by David Hamilton.
Latin name: Ulex europaeus

Synonymous with wild landscapes, the common gorse bush is an alluring sight throughout the spring and summer months with its attractive yellow flowers standing out brilliantly against the rough and rugged scenery. 
A large and evergreen shrub, gorse can be found pretty much everywhere from rolling moor and heathland to urban back gardens. Equipped with needle like leaves, gorse can be the cause of much discomfort for any unfortunate passer-by who strays too close.

Gorse has a relatively short lifespan, living approximately 25 years. Nevertheless, with management techniques this can be greatly extended. This is potentially beneficial for a range of bird who rely on gorse for shelter and nesting purposes. Examples include the stonechat, linnet and yellowhammer who utilise the dense structure of the gorse bush as a life-saving refuge during harsh winters. Gorse is also home to many invertebrate species due to its prolonged flowering period, providing a sustained and vital source of nectar when it is otherwise scarce. 

Due to its ability to be versatile and flexible in terms of its growing location, gorse its relatively easy to manage and encourage to grow in a bid to sustain bird and invertebrate populations in a given area. Gorse tends to prefer soil with a low level of fertility in order to avoid competition from other plant species, enabling it to have a greater chance of surviving and growing to a reasonable size and providing a suitable habitat for a range of taxa. 

However, after approximately a decade, the gorse plant begins to degenerate causing a variety of problems. They soon lose their compactness and become a potential wild fire risk. In addition, as gorse bushes age they lose their ability and effectiveness to provide sufficient shelter for wildlife and are therefore no longer rendered beneficial organisms. Therefore, in order to control gorse it can be cut to ground level and treated with environment-friendly herbicide. An even simpler solution exists with the possibility of livestock, deer or rabbits to consume gorse stumps to slow rapid regeneration, whilst burning of bushes is also a tried and tested technique.




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