FURZE, GORSE or WHIN, botanical name Ulex, a genus of thorny papilionaceous shrubs of the family Leguminosae, com prising 20 species, confined to west and central Europe and north west Africa. Common furze, U. europaeus, is found on heaths and commons in western Europe from Denmark to Italy and Greece, and in the Canaries and Azores, and is abundant in the British Isles. It grows to a height of 2-6ft.; it has hairy stems, and the smaller branches end each in a spine; the leaves, some times lanceolate on the lowermost branches, are mostly repre sented by spines from 2 to 6 lines long, and branching at their base; and the flowers, about three-quarters of an inch in length, have a shaggy, yellowish-olive calyx, with two small ovate bracts at its base, and appear in early spring and late autumn. They are yellow and sweet-scented and visited by bees. The pods are few seeded ; their crackling as they burst may often be heard in hot weather. This species comprises U. europaeus proper, which has spreading branches, and strong, many-ridged spines, and U. strictus (Irish furze), with erect branches, and slender 4-edged spines. Another British species of furze is U. nanus, dwarf furze, also a native of Belgium, Spain and the west of France; it is a procumbent plant, less hairy than U. europaeus, with smaller and more orange-coloured flowers, which spring from the primary spines, and have a nearly smooth calyx, with minute basal bracts. Furze, or gorse, is sometimes employed for fences.
Notwithstanding its formidable spines, the young shoots yield a palatable and nutritious winter forage for horses and cattle. To fit it for this purpose it must be chopped and bruised to destroy the spines. There are now a variety of machines by which this is done rapidly and efficiently, and which are in use where this kind of forage is used to any extent. The agricultural value of this plant has often been over-rated by writers. In the case of poor, dry soils it does, however, yield much valuable food at a season when green forage is not otherwise to be had. It is given to horses and cows in combination with chopped hay or straw.
This plant is invaluable in mountain sheep-walks. The rounded form of the furze bushes in such situations shows how diligently the annual growth, as far as it is accessible, is nibbled by the sheep. The food and shelter afforded to them in snowstorms by clusters of such bushes is also of much importance. Young plants of whin are so kept down by the sheep that they can seldom at tain to a profitable size unless protected by a fence for a few years. In various parts of England it is cut for fuel. The ashes contain a large proportion of alkali, and are a good manure, especially for peaty land.