11–58; see text Genista-spartium Duhamel (1755) Ulex (commonly known as gorse, furze, or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae.

The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae.

Gorse is closely related to the brooms, and like them, it has green stems, very small leaves and is adapted to dry growing conditions.

However, it differs from the brooms in its extreme thorniness, the shoots being modified into branched thorns 1–4 centimetres (1⁄2–1+1⁄2 inches) long, which almost wholly replace the leaves as the plant's functioning photosynthetic organs.

Gorse is a valuable plant for wildlife, providing dense, thorny cover that's ideal for protecting bird nests.

The dry wood of dead gorse stems provides food for the caterpillars of the concealer moth Batia lambdella.

In many areas of North America (notably California and Oregon), southern South America, Australia, New Zealand, the Falkland Islands,[15] and Hawaii, the common gorse—originally introduced as an ornamental plant or hedge—has become an invasive species owing to its aggressive seed dispersal; it has proved very difficult to eradicate and detrimental to native habitats.

Common gorse is also an invasive species in the montane grasslands of Horton Plains National Park in Sri Lanka.

Where this is undesirable for agricultural or ecological reasons, control is required either to remove gorse completely, or to limit its extent.

Traditionally, it was used as fodder for horses and cattle,[19] being made palatable either by bruising (crushing) with hand-held mallets, grinding it to a moss-like consistency with hand- or water-driven mills, or being finely chopped and mixed with straw chaff.