Spanish heath
Erica australis
Family · Ericaceae · Harmless
The reddish purple that covers the inland sierras in April, often beside French lavender. It is one of the best storytellers of a slope: where it dominates, there was fire a few years ago.
Where it grows
Scrubland · Uplands
Also known assouthern heath
In flower
How to tell it
A half-metre to two-metre shrub with outward-facing reddish pink tubular flowers, grouped at branch tips. Needle leaves in whorls of four.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
Heather honey, dark and bitter, highly valued in the inland sierras. The thin wood was oven fuel.