Countryside writer MIKE BAGSHAW explores one of the few plants that make such an impact on the landscape.

WHEN is a pea coconut-flavoured and more prickly than a thistle? Answer: when it’s a whin.

Whin is the northern English vernacular name for gorse, a bush so notoriously spiny that Kenneth Grahame had Winnie the Pooh famously stuck fast in one. The endearing little bear initially mistook it for an ambush, because it had sprung out on him one day when he fell from a tree, and it took him six days to remove all the prickles.

We all know to avoid its ferocious spines, but did you know that gorse is a member of the pea family? I was reminded of the fact last week while lying on a grassy bank near Yearsley. It was a baking hot day, way too warm for a walk really, and my legs had decided that they would prefer to be horizontal for a few minutes, so I let them.

Gazing up at the starling-egg sky, I spent some time just enjoying the sounds of summer that surrounded me – manic screaming of swifts, rasping of grasshopper legs and that lovely soothing background buzz of bees. Then I noticed an unfamiliar noise, a faint crackling as if a bowl of crisp riced cereal was going off nearby.

The culprit turned out to be a dense gorse bush a few yards behind me. The hot sun had dried out and twisted its hundreds of seed-pods to the point where they lost all stability and the two halves exploded apart with an audible crack, ejecting all the seeds in the process – a dispersal strategy common to all members of the pea family.

It then occurred to me that this was the exact bush that I had photographed on the same walk four months previously, when each of these many pea-pods was an intense yellow flower, giving off a quite unexpected fragrance of coconut.

The fact that this particular bush was flowering in March identified it as common gorse. The other related species we have in Ryedale is dwarf gorse, which blooms in late summer and autumn. This sequential flowering has resulted in some gorse flowers being out somewhere during most months of the year, hence the wry saying, “Kissing is in favour when the gorse is in bloom” – all the time in other words.

Gorse has another surprise up its sleeve. Closer examination reveals that the bush possesses no leaves at all – the green parts of the plant, including those razor sharp spines, are all modified stems. They are however extremely nutritious for any animal that can cope with the spines. Farmers of yore used gorse as cattle fodder, making it more palatable by crushing the prickly branches in a mill. Even the inedible woody parts of the bush were useful. Gorse wood burns well and with a hot flame, so it was the preferred fuel for baker’s ovens.

So, next time you’re out walking and your shins are “ambushed”, don’t curse the gorse out of hand. Take a closer look, listen for popping pods or smell those flowers. You could even use it as an excuse to kiss your walking partner.