Ulex

Gorse is perhaps the most important plant in the British and Irish countryside, especially for bumblebees, honeybees and solitary bees that emerge in the early spring, in all except its doubled cultivars in which nectar and pollen resources are more restricted and potentially more difficult to access. Irrespective of the flowers however, the bushes provide safe breeding localities for birds such as linnet, long-tailed tit and whitethroat, as well as supporting numerous insects such as weevils, micromoths and the caterpillars of the delightful green hairstreak butterfly.