Baetic gorse
Ulex baeticus
Family · Fabaceae · Irritating
The gorse of the southwestern Peninsula, flowering in midwinter and covering Algarve and Andalusian scrub in yellow when nothing else does. It pricks as much as the others.
Scrubland · Uplands · Dunes and sand
Also known asAndalusian gorse
How to tell it
Rigid, deeply grooved spines pointing in several directions. Yellow pea flowers with a dark-haired calyx, along the branches. It flowers from November to March, which already helps separate it. Range: mainly a Spanish plant, practically absent from Portugal.
What it is confused with
Small-flowered gorse
Ulex parviflorus
They are very similar and range helps more than the plant: Baetic gorse is southwestern, small-flowered gorse eastern and central. Both prick and both burn fast.
What it is for
Fuel and livestock bedding, like other gorses, and an important winter nectar plant in the south. It also counts as fire load near houses.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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