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FURZE
Ulex europaeus
Family LEGUMINOSAE
Abundant in England , Ireland and southern Scotland , on heaths and sandy places. It is about April that it is in its full glory, and one may gather, about that time, enormous trusses of deliciously fragrant golden flowers - if one is not deterred by its formidable spines.
It is a shrub, growing as high as six feet, and more or less hairy. The numerous short branches, from which the flowers spring, all terminate in a stout, very sharp thorn.
The calyx is divided into two parts only, is large and thin, minutely toothed, and coloured yellow, which is subdued by the black hairs that cover it. There are large bracts below the flowers.
The black hairy seed-pod is but slightly longer than the calyx, the valves elastic, which causes them, when ripe, to curl up with a crackling noise, and scatter widely the polished seeds.
As a seedling, the Furze has sof t hairy leaves that are trefoils; but as the plant grows older the new leaf material is produced as spines.
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The calyx is two-lipped and there are five petals, a large up per petal, two lateral ones, and a europaeus ulex lower pair which are united, forming a boat-shaped body. Within this body lie the stamens and pistil, and the former have the filaments united in to a tube within europaeus ulex which lies the ovary. Flowering from April to June. Though this handsome plant will be found growing apparently wild in the hedgerow and on the borders of fields, it must ulex europaeus be not be hastily concluded to be a native. The species is largely grown in this country as a green fodder plant, for which it is highly esteemed, and it europaeus ulex has escaped from the fields and reproduced itself without man's aid.
The leaflets, fresh yellow green trefoils, backed with purple, droop close to the stalk at night or on the approach of ulex europaeus rain, contracting or expanding under the influence of darkness or light respectively. The leaves have a pleasant acid flavour due to oxalic acid. The white flowers, streaked with pink, are europaeus ulex large and are borne on long and slender radical stems, and consist of five sepals, five petals, ten stamens and five stigmas; The fruit is a five-angled irritable capsule europaeus ulex, from which the black seeds are thrown with great force, up to a distance of several yards. Flowering April and May.
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