Erica ciliaris

Erica ciliaris is a species of heather, known in the British Isles as Dorset heath.[1]

This article is about the plant commonly known as Dorset heath. For the natural region, see Dorset Heaths.

Erica ciliaris
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Genus: Erica
Species:
E. ciliaris
Binomial name
Erica ciliaris

Description

It grows to 60 centimetres (24 inches), and has leaves 2–4 millimetres (1⁄16–3⁄16 in) long, with long, glandular hairs.[1] The flowers are 8–12 mm (3⁄8–1⁄2 in) long, bright pink, and arranged in long racemes.[1]

Distribution and habitat

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.[2] In the British Isles, it is only found natively in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and one location in County Galway,[3] where it lives in bogs and wet heaths.[4] It has also been introduced to Hampshire.[1]

In culture

E. ciliaris was voted the county flower of Dorset in 2002 following a poll by the wild flora conservation charity Plantlife.[4]

References
  1. Clive A. Stace (2010). "Erica L. – heaths". New Flora of the British Isles (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 528–530. ISBN 978-0-521-70772-5.
  2. S. B. Chapman (1975). "The distribution and composition of hybrid populations of Erica ciliaris L. and Erica tetralix L. in Dorset". Journal of Ecology. 63 (3): 809–823. doi:10.2307/2258603. JSTOR 2258603.
  3. Erica Ciliaris L. R. J. Rose, P. Bannister and S. B. Chapman Journal of Ecology Vol. 84, No. 4 (Aug., 1996), pp. 617–628
  4. "Dorset heath (Erica ciliaris)". County Flowers. Plantlife. Archived from the original on 21 September 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2011.


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