Blood covers tip of spiny, prickly shrub (5)
I believe the answer is:
gorse
'prickly shrub' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'blood covers tip of spiny' is the wordplay.
'blood' becomes 'gore' (gore means blood or violence).
'covers' indicates putting letters inside.
'tip of' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'spiny' is 's'.
'gore' placed around 's' is 'GORSE'.
(Other definitions for gorse that I've seen before include "Spiny heathland shrub" , "Prickly moorland plant" , "Prickly shrub, furze, whin" , "furs, say" , "Spiny yellow-flowered shrub" .)