Tree heath
Erica arborea
Family · Ericaceae · Harmless
The heath that grows into a tree, with clouds of tiny white flowers in spring and a honey smell you catch metres away. Its root is the briar of luxury pipes.
Scrubland · Uplands · Pine woods · Oak woods
Also known asbriar, tree heather
How to tell it
Very fine needle leaves in whorls, and thousands of tiny white bells in clusters. It reaches three or four metres, which no other native heath does.
What it is confused with
Strawberry tree
Arbutus unedo
Same family, identical white bell flowers, same scrub. The leaf settles it: heath has fine needles, strawberry tree has broad glossy leaves.
What it is for
The woody root burl, hard and heat-resistant, is the raw material of briar pipes. The flowers yield a sought-after dark honey.
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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