Not to be semantically confused with : species of Ilex (Hollies) [plants with similar Genus name]

Nor to be semantically confused with : Western Mugwort (Artemisia ludoviciana), Western Brome (Ceratochloa marginata), Western Marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza kerryensis), Western Stork's-bill (Erodium cygnorum), Western Ramping-Fumitory (Fumaria occidentalis), Western Sword-fern (Polystichum munitum), Western Clover (Trifolium occidentale) nor the tree Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) [plants with similar names belonging to differing families].

Easily mistaken for : Gorse (Ulex europeaus) but that has more-yellow, less orangey flowers, flowers which usually open wide with the banner shining bright, and has flowers which smell of coconut (unlike the others which are odourless?). The plant also flowers about 3 months earlier, in the spring, that the other later flowerers, but overlaps can occur particularly with Gorse whose flowers often last longer and into the same flowering season of Western Gorse.

Hybridizes with :

• Dwarf Gorse (Ulex minor) (which is a rare [R]) to produce Ulex gallii × Ulex minor which is much rarer than either parent. This hybrid is only found in Dorset, and differs between the two in the lengths of the calyx (8.5mm) and the standard (11.5mm).
• Gorse (Ulex europaeus) to produce Ulex × breoganii which is highly fertile occurs only rarely where the two parents overlap. It is intermediate in character especially in the following features: calyx, corolla, bracteole size and the number of ovules per fruit (between 7 and 10). This hybrid flowers in Autumn and Winter.

It is a shrub 1.5 to 2m in stature (somewhat shorter than Gorse (Ulex europaeus). It is the western counterpart to the much shorter Dwarf Gorse. It is native and found mainly in western half of Britain as far north as Solway, and west into Wales, IoM and SW Scotland. Also east to dorset and East Anglia.

NOTES: to get any reliable identification, all measurements should be the arithmetic mean of 10 measurements in order to truly differentiate between the three Gorses. But there are some short-cuts. For instance, Gorse is the only one where the flowers smell of Coconut (or so the books imply).