Description: Shrub, branches spiny.
Leaves alternate, 3-foliolate in seedlings, reduced to scale-like or spine-like phyllodes at maturity; sessile; stipules absent.
Flowers axillary, usually solitary, rarely clustered, in racemes or umbels; bracteoles 2. Calyx 2-lipped, upper lip 2-toothed, lower lip 3-toothed, persistent. Petals yellow, persistent; wings straight, longer than keel. Stamens monodelphous; anthers alternately long and basifixed and short and dorsifixed. Ovary sessile; style glabrous.
Pod broad-ovoid to oblong, dehiscent; seeds 1–6, with an aril.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 20 species, Europe & northern Africa. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by C. Gardener
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Ulex europaeus |
|
