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.
Scrubland · Uplands
Also known assouthern heath
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.
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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