page_title: Ulex europaeus
section_title: Other uses
hierarchical_section_title: Ulex europaeus / Other uses
caption_attribution_description: English: A stone used for crushing Whin to make it suitable for feeding to cattle. Dalgarven Mill, Kilwinning, Ayrshire.
context_page_description: Ulex europaeus is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to the British Isles and Western Europe.
context_section_description: Bruised gorse was used in some areas for feeding to horses and other livestock.
  Lectin extracted from seeds of this species binds to, is remarkably specific for, and is the standard method for identification of H-substance (absent in the hh antigen system) on human red blood cells.  The vast majority of humans express H-substance, which is the basis for the ABO blood group system, but a few rare individuals ("Bombay phenotype") do not—and a chemical isolated from Ulex europaeus is used to identify these individuals. This lectin is also used as a marker for human vascular endothelial cells, and as a tool for their isolation for in-vitro culture.
  It fixes nitrogen into the soil.
caption: Whin-stone, used for bruising gorse
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