Biology:Erica ciliaris

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Short description: Species of flowering plant

Erica ciliaris
Erica ciliaris.jpg
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Genus: Erica
Species:
E. ciliaris
Binomial name
Erica ciliaris

Erica ciliaris is a species of heather, known in the British Isles as Dorset heath.[1]

Description

It grows to 60 centimetres (24 inches), and has leaves 2–4 millimetres (116316 in) long, with long, glandular hairs.[1] The flowers are 8–12 mm (3812 in) long, bright pink, and arranged in long racemes.[1]

Distribution and habitat

Erica ciliaris has a Lusitanian distribution, stretching from Morocco in the south, along the Atlantic coasts of Portugal, Spain and France to south-western parts of the British Isles in the north.[2] In the British Isles, it is only found natively in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and one location in County Galway,[3] where it lives in bogs and wet heaths.[4] It has also been introduced to Hampshire.[1]

In culture

E. ciliaris was voted the county flower of Dorset in 2002 following a poll by the wild flora conservation charity Plantlife.[4]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Clive A. Stace (2010). "Erica L. – heaths". New Flora of the British Isles (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 528–530. ISBN 978-0-521-70772-5. 
  2. S. B. Chapman (1975). "The distribution and composition of hybrid populations of Erica ciliaris L. and Erica tetralix L. in Dorset". Journal of Ecology 63 (3): 809–823. doi:10.2307/2258603. 
  3. Erica Ciliaris L. R. J. Rose, P. Bannister and S. B. Chapman Journal of Ecology Vol. 84, No. 4 (Aug., 1996), pp. 617–628
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Dorset heath (Erica ciliaris)". County Flowers. Plantlife. http://www.plantlife.org.uk/wild_plants/plant_species/dorset_heath/. Retrieved July 28, 2011. 

Wikidata ☰ Q386739 entry