GORSE

21st March 2024

QUOTATION

Then I beat my tabor,

At which, like unbacked colts, they pricked their ears,

Advanced their eyelids, lifted up their noses,

As they smelt music. So, I charmed their ears

That, calf-like, they my lowing followed through

Toothed briers, sharp furzes, pricking gorse, and thorns,

Which, entered their frail shins. At last I left them

I’ th’ filthy mantled pool beyond your cell,

There dancing up to th’ chins, that the foul lake,

O’erstunk their feet.

ARIEL: The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1

GORSE (Ulex europeaus)

Ariel, in this quotation, leads the sailors through a very painful group of plants, Gorse, Briers and Thorns. Gorse has long spikes for leaves. John Gerard (1597) tells us that ‘there be diverse sorts of prickly Broome, called in our English tongue by sundry names, according to the speech of the countrey people where they doe grow: in some places Furzes; in other places Whins, Gorse, and of some prickly Broome.”

Gorse is a shrub in the Pea Family (Fabaceae) with Coconut scented yellow/orange flowers. There are 3 gorse species in Britain all of which flower at different times which is one of the bases of the old saying ‘kissing’s in fashion when the gorse is in bloom’, as there is usually one of the three in bloom in any given month of the year. Gorse is often used as a fodder plant. Common Gorse can flower in January and sometimes earlier, even in northern latitudes in frosty conditions. The other species are Western Gorse (Ulex gallii) and Dwarf Gorse (Ulex minor).

Gorse and Broom are both common shrubs with yellow flowers and both belong to the Pea Family. The biggest difference is in the leaves: Gorse has spikes and Broom has small sets of three part leaves.

More Information

BSBI Plant Atlas 2020: Gorse

Folger Shakespeare Library: Search Shakespeare’s Works

John Gerard, 1597, The Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes (1636 edition accessed via Archive.org)

Woodland Trust: Gorse