Scientific name Erica ciliaris Rank Species | Genus Erica Higher classification Heath | |
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Similar Heath, Erica vagans, Erica tetralix, Erica cinerea, Erica umbellata | ||
Erica ciliaris is a species of heather, known in the British Isles as Dorset heath. It grows to 60 centimetres (24 in), and has leaves 2–4 millimetres (0.08–0.16 in) long, with long, glandular hairs. The flowers are 8–12 mm (0.31–0.47 in) long, bright pink, and arranged in long racemes.
Distribution
Erica ciliaris has a Lusitanian distribution, stretching from Morocco in the south, along the Atlantic coasts of Portugal, Spain and France to south-western parts of the British Isles in the north. In the British Isles, it is only found natively in Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, where it lives in bogs and wet heaths. It has also been introduced to Hampshire and County Galway. E. ciliaris was voted the county flower of Dorset in 2002 following a poll by the wild flora conservation charity Plantlife.
