Erica ciliaris explained

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

Description

It grows to 60cm (20inches), and has leaves 2- long, with long, glandular hairs. The flowers are 8- long, bright pink, and arranged in long racemes.

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.

In culture

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

Notes and References

1. Book: Clive A. Stace. Clive A. Stace. 2010 . New Flora of the British Isles. 3rd. Erica L. – heaths . 528–530. Cambridge University Press. 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. 10.2307/2258603. 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. Web site: Plantlife. Dorset heath (Erica ciliaris). County Flowers. July 28, 2011. 21 September 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110921021759/http://www.plantlife.org.uk/wild_plants/plant_species/dorset_heath. dead.