Small-flowered gorse
Ulex parviflorus
Family · Fabaceae · Irritating
The gorse of the south and east, finer and yellower than the northern one, and the most dangerous fuel in Mediterranean scrub. It burns so well that it is the species firefighters look at first when reading a slope.
Scrubland · Uplands · Roadsides and waste ground · Pine woods
Also known asMediterranean gorse
How to tell it
Thin flexible spines, far more delicate than common gorse's, and small yellow flowers opening in midwinter. A dense greyish-green cushion with a lot of dead material inside.
What it is confused with
Gorse
Ulex europaeus
Common gorse is bigger, with thick stiff spines, and lives in the humid northwest; small-flowered gorse is fine, flexible and lives in the dry south. Both prick, one more than the other.
Open sheet →What it is for
None to encourage. The dead material trapped inside the cushion is what makes it so flammable, which is why fuel management around houses almost always starts with it.