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

Description

It grows to 60 cm, and has leaves 2 - 4 mm long, with long, glandular hairs. The flowers are 8 - 12 mm long, bright pink, and arranged in long racemes.

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. In the British Isles, it is only found natively in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and one location in County Galway, where it lives in bogs and wet heaths. It has also been introduced to Hampshire.

In culture

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