Besom heath
Erica scoparia
Family · Ericaceae · Harmless
The tall green heath with inconspicuous flowers, used to make brooms and hedges across the centre of the country. Unlike other heaths, you barely notice it when it flowers.
Scrubland · Pine woods · Oak woods · Uplands
Also known asgreen heather
How to tell it
An upright shrub one to three metres tall with bright green fine foliage. The flowers are tiny, greenish or reddish, and go unnoticed. Needle leaves in whorls of three or four.
What it is confused with
Tree heath
Erica arborea
The flower decides: tree heath covers itself in white bells and smells of honey; this one barely shows flowers. Both harmless.
What it is for
Brooms, hedges and shed roofing. It is also among the heaths that resprout best after fire, which makes it a piece of burnt-slope recovery.
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
No approved contributions for this entry yet.
Nothing appears here without a person reading it first. Contributions do not replace the entry or its warnings: until a botanist confirms, what is written above stands.