Spanish heath

Description

Erica lusitanica is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, known by the common names Portuguese heath and Spanish heath. It is native to Portugal, Spain and southwestern France. It is named for Lusitania, a historical region encompassing most of modern Portugal and parts of western Spain. Erica lusitanica is a hairy, woody shrub just under 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in maximum height. It is densely covered in plumes of green, leathery, needle-like evergreen leaves each less than a centimeter long. Flowers appear between the leaves, singly or in small clusters, in winter and spring. Each is a hanging rounded tubular bell of fused light pink-to-white petals. The fruit is a capsule a few millimeters long filled with minuscule seeds small enough to disperse on the wind. A single plant can produce millions of seeds per year. Erica lusitanica is cultivated as an ornamental plant for gardens. Like others of its kind it is a calcifuge and prefers an open, sunny site in acid soil. It is typically seen in the company of other heathers and mixed conifers. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Garden escapes easily become introduced species and sometimes invasive species—noxious weeds in certain climates. It has naturalised in the British Isles, California, Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand. Erica is a genus of roughly 857 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. The English common names heath and heather are shared by some closely related genera of similar appearance. The genus Calluna was formerly included in Erica – it differs in having even smaller scale-leaves (less than 2–3 mm long), and the flower corolla consisting of separate petals. Erica is sometimes referred to as "winter (or spring) heather" to distinguish it from Calluna "summer (or autumn) heather". Most of the species of Erica are small shrubs from 20–150 cm (8–59 in) high, though some are taller; the tallest are E. arborea (tree heath) and E. scoparia (besom heath), both of which can reach up to 7 m (23 ft) tall. All are evergreen, with minute, needle-like leaves 2–15 millimetres (0.079–0.591 in) long. Flowers are sometimes axillary, and sometimes borne in terminal umbels or spikes, and are usually outward or downward facing. The seeds are very small, and in some species may survive in the soil for decades.