Erica ciliaris

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

Erica ciliaris, the dorset heath, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Erica.^[1]

Dorset heath
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 L.

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]