3681.000 Ulex L.

Shrubs; branchlets very spiny. Leaves usually alternate, 3-foliolate on seedlings, but reduced to scale-like or narrow, spine-like phyllodes on mature plants. Flowers yellow, axillary, solitary or in small clusters, sometimes aggregated into racemes or umbel-like inflorescences. Calyx yellow, persistent, divided to base into 2 lips; upper lip 2-toothed, lower lip 3-toothed. Petals; upper ovate; wings and keel obtuse. Fruit a pod, ovate to shortly linear, 2-valved. Seeds 1-6

Worldwide: About 20 species native to western Europe and North-West Africa. 1 species naturalised in Drakensburg.

Zimbabwe: 2 cultivated taxa.