A shrub with well-defended branches
Spines are part of the gorse’s silhouette.
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Common gorse, Ulex europaeus subsp. europaeus, is a strongly spined shrub that can reach two metres. The Barcelos Arboretum profile associates it with heathland, hedges and scrub edges and mentions winter flowering. Scrub landscapes can therefore have flowers outside spring.
The same source records uses as fodder, cattle bedding and fuel. These uses belong to the general plant description; they do not document a specific practice in Cabeceiras. The municipality mentions gorse in the mountain landscape without identifying the species in each place.
The Arboretum describes leaves transformed into spines and branching that may be open or compact. The outward shape becomes more interesting when we ask which plant part each structure comes from. For gorse, the profile mentions modified leaves; in butcher’s broom, what looks like a leaf is a flattened stem. In carqueja, green stems also take part in photosynthesis. Comparing these stories helps us look beyond the silhouette.
From the bush to the seasons and cattle
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Flowers at different times
A flower calendar →The landscape behind the honey
The landscape also reaches the honey →The shepherding in the memory of the Prayer
The Orada was also a land of shepherding →When a branch looks like a leaf
It looks like a leaf, but it is a branch →Caules that do photosynthesis
In the carqueja, stems also work →
Source and context
Arboreto de Barcelos — Ulex europaeus subsp. europaeus
Municipality — landscape and vegetation
Accessed: . Editorial summary; the date of consultation is not the date of the facts.