Gorse
The shrub behind the old saying that kissing is out of fashion when gorse is out of blossom — which is to say never, because between common gorse and western gorse something is in flower in every month of the year. It offers no nectar at all and enormous quantities of pollen, and on a warm winter day a gorse bank is one of very few places a bee can find protein.
Where not to plant it
Seriously invasive in New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Hawai'i and the Pacific Northwest, where it forms impenetrable fire-prone thickets and is a major control cost. Excellent forage in western Europe and a genuine problem outside it.
Value to bees
- Nectar
- None
- Pollen
- Very high
- As a honey crop
- Not a honey source
- Which bees, and why
- Worked mainly by bumblebees, which are heavy enough to trip the spring-loaded keel and release the pollen. Honey bees collect it too on mild winter days. The coconut scent on a warm day is one of the more pleasant field experiences in British botany.
A keel flower requiring force to open, which favours bumblebees and larger solitary bees. There is no nectar to be accessible or otherwise.
- Worth knowing
- Zero nectar and top-rated pollen, available in midwinter. Alongside hazel and poppy it is the clearest argument for rating the two separately.
Flowering
- In flower
- January to December (northern hemisphere)
Common gorse peaks January to June and western gorse July to November, so the genus is genuinely in flower year-round.
- When nectar flows
- No nectar at all. Gorse offers only pollen, and it explodes it onto a visiting bee through a spring-loaded keel mechanism that trips under a bee's weight.
- Year-to-year variation
- Pollen supply is dependable in every month. It will never be a honey source.
Growing it
- Conditions
- Full sun, poor acid free-draining soil, and exposure. It thrives on the worst ground available.
- Size
- 1-3 m.
- Native range
- Western Europe.
- Suits
- Hedgerow, Large gardens, Meadow or wildflower area
- A hedgerow and rough-ground plant rather than a border one — it is extremely spiny and it burns fiercely.
- Cut on a rotation to keep it dense and flowering; old gorse becomes leggy and produces little.
- Fixes nitrogen and is a genuine winter pollen resource, which makes it far more valuable on rough ground than its reputation suggests.
What it looks like
A dense, viciously spiny evergreen shrub with reduced leaves and masses of bright yellow pea flowers smelling strongly of coconut on a warm day.
Sources
- Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland — Bloomsbury (2015) · Field guide
- Bumblebees: Behaviour, Ecology, and Conservation — Oxford University Press (2010) · Monograph
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Guides covering this plant
- Plants that attract honey bees specificallyHoney bees have short tongues and work in large numbers, which means they want different plants from bumblebees. Half the flowers sold as bee-friendly are out of their reach entirely.
- Why botanical family is the most useful thing to know about a bee plantCorolla depth, floret arrangement and whether nectar is exposed are inherited traits. Learn a family and you can predict a plant nobody has catalogued.
- Long-flowering plants for beesA plant in flower for five months does the work of three plants in flower for six weeks, and removes the timing problem that defeats most bee planting. These are the ones that keep going.
Tools for planning planting
- Flowering calendar
What should I plant so that something is always in flower for bees?
- Bee-friendly garden planner
What should I plant in the space I actually have?
- Plant recommendation tool
Which plant fills this specific gap?