Heather
Calluna vulgaris
Family · Ericaceae · Harmless
The purple that covers the northern sierras in August and September, and the plant behind dark, bitter heather honey. It is not a true heath: it is the only member of its genus, told apart by scale leaves rather than needles.
Uplands · Scrubland · Pine woods
Also known asling, common heather
How to tell it
Tiny scale leaves pressed to the stem in four rows, giving the branches a corded look. Small lilac-pink flowers in a loose spike, which stay dry on the plant all winter.
What it is confused with
Spanish heath
Erica australis
Run a finger along the twig: heather has tight scales and the twig feels corded; heath has loose needles you feel one by one. And heather flowers in August, heath in April.
What it is for
Heather honey, brooms, livestock bedding and roof thatch in the northern sierras. In folk medicine it was a diuretic infusion.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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