Bell heather
Erica cinerea
Family · Ericaceae · Harmless
The heath with carmine-purple flowers that paints the northwestern sierras in high summer, before common heather opens. It is the most Atlantic of the Iberian heaths and does not leave the country's humid quarter.
Uplands · Scrubland · Pine woods
Also known asfine-leaved heath, purple heather
How to tell it
Very short needle leaves in whorls of three, dark green and hairless, with margins so rolled the leaf looks like a thread. Glossy carmine-purple bells, fatter and darker than other heaths', clustered at the tips.
What it is confused with
Spanish heath
Erica australis
The season separates them well: Spanish heath flowers in spring, this one in summer. And the needles: in fours on Spanish heath, in threes here.
Open sheet →What it is for
Heather honey and brooms, like its cousins. It is one of the best plants for bees and butterflies in the northern sierras, and its presence marks acid, well-drained soil.