Americanized Gorse Gardens: Savvy, Spiny, Sweet-Smelling Survivalism

Summary: Americanized gorse gardens get good press greening wastelands and grubbing up nitrogen and poor press grabbing land from crops and growing over forage.

closeup of gorse flowers; Puu Nianiau, northern Haleakala National Park, southeastern Maui; Dec. 11, 2004: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Americanized gorse gardens activate inaccessible nitrogen, unavailable in insoluble form, in pastures, rangelands and woodlands but assemble into dense stands through prolific seeds against competitive vegetation and year-round spines against grazing livestock.

Various North American federal, provincial and state governments ban gorse and 15 other weedy members in the Fabaceae family of pea-related herbs, shrubs, trees and vines. Native creeping sensitive plant and sensitive plant and nonnative birdsfoot trefoil, black medic, crown vetch, rosary pea, tufted vetch and white clover cull no weed sanctions. All five native and all 19 nonnative species deal with problem soils but decrease crop yields and grazing lands, discourage species diversity and disrupt environmental balance.

Gorse, naturalized by the 1950s as introduced wind-breaking hedgeplants since the 1890s, endures sanctions in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, in British Columbia and in Mexico.

Perennial gorse, commonly named furze, prickly broom and whin, fits leathery, oblong, stalkless, 0.19- to 0.28-inch- (5- to 7-millimeter-) long cotyledons onto hairless, somewhat woody stems.

The embryonic leaves in the seedling stage give way to lance-shaped, leathery, simple, 0.08- to 0.19-inch- (2- to 5-millimeter-) long first leaf stages with stiff hairs. Compound leaf stages have two to three 0.19- to 0.39-inch- (5- to 10-millimeter-) long leaflets and, 25 days after germination, rosettes 0.59 inches (1.5 centimeters) across. Spines intercede as companions to basal leaf clusters and upper compound leaflets when gorse is 1.97 inches (5 centimeters) tall and four to six months old.

All of the west European woody perennial's mature shoots juggle alternate-arranged, reduced to flattened, 0.19- to 1.97-inch- (5- to 50-millimeter-) long spines in Americanized gorse gardens.

Gorse, scientifically described by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778) and named Ulex europaeus (rosemary-like European), keeps perennial February through May bloom times.

Fragrant, perfect, showy, yellow flowering stages lavish evergreen, spiny shrubs with inflorescences, called racemes, of flowers on same-sized stalklets on central stalks and with solitary flowers. Each 18-plus-month-old flower maintains one pistil, two fused and three unfused petals, five two-lipped, united, 0.39- to 0.59-inch- (10- to 15-millimeter-) long sepals and 10 stamens. Every perfect flower nurtures black, explosive, fruiting, hairy, 0.39- to 0.79-inch- (1- to 2-centimeter-) long, 0.24- to 0.32-inch- (6- to 8-millimeter-) wide, two- to 12-seeded legumes.

Americanized gorse gardens, during growing seasons, observe 16.4-foot (5-meter) jumps by 18,000 bean-shaped, olive green to brown seeds from their parent plant two months after pollination.

Mature, severe weather-intolerant, 3.28- to 19.68-inch- (1- to 6-meter-) tall gorse, 26.25 feet (8 meters) in diameter, produces 0.08- to 1.12-inch- (2- to 3-millimeter-) long seeds.

Temperatures of 59 to 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit (15 to 19 degrees Celsius) in the soil's top 1.97 inches (5 centimeters) quicken 30- to 70-year viable germination. Layering reproduces by the lower branches on gorse's green to brown, woody stems rooting independent plants upon contact with underlying soil and results in dense stands. Temperatures below 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius) stimulate seed germination while those at or below it sabotage all stages in gorse's expected 30-year life cycles.

Seedy, weedy alfalfa, bean, clover, lentil, pea and peanut relatives in Americanized gorse gardens always transform ground-reflecting, moisture-imbalanced, nitrogen-poor wastelands into oases away from vulnerable croplands.

gorse flowers and foliage; Kahakapao Reservoir, Haleakala Ranch, central Maui; March 17, 2009: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

closeup of gorse flowers; Puu Nianiau, northern Haleakala National Park, south central Maui; Dec. 11, 2004: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Starr_041211-1443_Ulex_europaeus.jpg?uselang=fr

gorse flowers and foliage; Kahakapao Reservoir, Haleakala Ranch, central Maui; March 17, 2009: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/starr-environmental/24855093751/

For further information:

Dickinson, Richard; and Royer, France. 2014. Weeds of North America. Chicago IL; London, England: The University of Chicago Press.

Linnaeus, Carl. 1753. "1. Ulex europaeus." Species Plantarum, vol. II: 741. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358762

"Ulex europaeus L." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/13034545

Weakley, Alan S.; Ludwig, J. Christopher; and Townsend, John F. 2012. Flora of Virginia. Edited by Bland Crowder. Fort Worth TX: BRIT Press, Botanical Research Institute of Texas.