[plants] Gorse, ulex.
Pioneer that loves Fire
As pretty, as this fellow is, as painful is its touch. (Ulex) gorse is part of the fabaceae family and nitrogen fixing. It is covered with countless spikes, as every leaf ends in a painful tip. Defenitely use tough gloves when handling this plant. For me simple welding gloves provide a very good protection. Gorse is an excellent pioneer plant in heavily degraded soils. Its one of the fast and first plants to flourish after wild fires. It even loves so much to grow after fire, that it likes to burn itself and is highly flammable, so unconditionally ceep it out of your fire sector!
These images show the gorse going crazy in the surrounding of our property in mid May 2016. Arent these some genious, bright yellow brush strokes in the landscape. Stunning beauty!
Propagation (also unwanted)
Wanting to remove it by cutting it down and into small bits, or even shreddering it is a bad idea in the wet season of the year, as every single piece of it seems to have the power to grow shoots and roots. Believe me on that, as I made this (painful) experience myself.
So better think about removing it from unwanted places in the dry season and keep the cuttings as a whole plant uncovered and well ventilated until they completely dried out which happens fast as they whish to burn to explode their seeds out by the strong tension of the drying pods. Once dry though, the gorse is dead and decomposes fairly quickly as a good carbon ingredient for a hot or cold compost.
Edibility
Joung shoot tips can be cut and cooked in hot water as tea.
Flowers are edible and as PFAF says: "The flower buds are pickled in vinegar and then used like capers in salads"
Like @squdsi1 likes to say:
This post is proudly filled with original writing and photos. ENJOY!
What a resilient plant! Seems even the goats can't get a full handle on that one lol I googled: "Heavy grazing by sheep, goats or cattle may be effective in reducing shoot regrowth following a fire or after cultivation but will rarely kill established plants." Is that part of a castle in the 2nd photo?
Haha... no, no castle. Its a small ruin on the neighboring plot of land.
Gorse is very resilient in deed. Yet cutting plants back and not allowing them to grow new leaves by recutting every few weeks or so will kill every plant. (Just in case one wants to relly get rid of the gorse).
I initially got into researching about it, after I read on Wikipedia, that gorse is a fire-climax plant. That got me scared and I looked deeper into it, as we live in a fire prone mediterranean country. Thanks for your generous upvote @wisewoof.
Have you watched the Historic Farm series on BBC? I learned that gorse had quite a bit different uses in the times past from those series, from barn insulation and protection to winter horse feed!
No. I did not see that series. Very interesting information. Especially the barn protection makes me think of an other interesting fakt about gorse:
It is also known to be a great nursery plant. Joung trees, if they receive enough light amongst gorse bushes are very well protected from browsing animals. Well who wants to enter a bush very painful needles for a few leaves...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:BBC_historic_farms_series
All can be found... by browsing around ;) I recommend watching them in chronological order:
Haha. "All can be found... by browsing around" is a nice one. Thanks for the show. I will have a look at it.
I love this kind of posts: introducing a plant, with pics and stories, how you can use it, and how you shouldn't. Perfect. Great pictures too! Your Mediterranean home already looks like a gorgeous place, and you're just starting out.
Man, its more than gorgeous! We (me, my wive and my two kids) moved here 1.5 years ago. Funny enough it was not the nature, mantality and weather, that brought us here to Portugal, but the shear impossible real estate prices in Germany. No kidding. And as my wive is Portuguese we checked out property prices online and thought we should give it a closer look, also reguarding kindergarden, medical service and localities.. We stayed 3 month for this research and came back with a contract for a rented place and almost with signed papers for our piece of land. In 6 weeks we cancelled all our contracts with gas/water/electricity/internet/mobile phnes/kindergardens, back up everything we owned into a small truck and left Germany... Probably for ever.
And man am I happy to live in a place with all that nature, ocean, great mantalily of people and amazing weather. BINGO!
Perfect! I'm glad to hear this relocation worked out so well for you. Enjoy the better places of the world! :-)
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