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Calluna vulgaris

(Heather)

Overview

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Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in English:

Heather, Heather Flower, Ling, Red-Heath, Scotch Heather, Scots Heather

Common Names in Romanian:

Martaloaga

Common Names in Spanish:

Biercol

Description

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Family Ericaceae

Plants usually woody, or herbs, sometimes lacking chlorophyll. Leaves spiral , sometimes decussate, margin often toothed . Inflorescence racemose; bracteoles paired , basal. Flowers (4 or) 5-merous. Calyx imbricate. Corolla connate , imbricate. Stamens 10, sometimes with spurs or awns , dehiscing by pores , pollen in tetrads , rarely single. Ovary superior or inferior, placentation axile , rarely parietal , often many ovules per locule. Style ± as long as corolla, slender. Fruit a capsule or berry, rarely a drupe; calyx persistent.

About 125 genera and 4000 species: widely distributed in temperate and subarctic regions, also at high elevations in tropical regions ; 22 genera and 826 species (524 endemic) in China.

The Monotropoideae are here included in the Ericaceae; previously in FRPS (56: 157 216. 1990), they were treated as the Pyrolaceae. Chiogenes, recorded from China in FRPS (57(3) : 69 71. 1991), is here included in Gaultheria. Over the last half century, the Empetraceae have usually been separated from, but closely associated with, the Ericaceae. In their ecology, leaf morphology and insertion , rusts, embryology, stamen anatomy, etc. , they largely agree with that family . Molecular data place Empetrum and its relatives firmly within the Ericaceae, and in particular within the subfamily Ericoideae, in agreement with phytochemical and palynological data, and there they are best recognized as a separate tribe . There are distinctive features of the Empetreae that were responsible for their past familial status, e.g. , reduced perianth with separate members , low ovule number, enlarged stigmas, etc. However, these are likely to be derived features associated with wind pollination. See Kron et al. (Bot. Rev. 68: 335 423. 2002) and the recent treatment of the Ericaceae by Stevens et al. (in Kubitzki, Fam. Gen. Vasc. Pl. 6: 145 194. 2004) .

Several genera and many species are ornamentals . Some fruits of Vaccinium in N China are sweet and edible, but of no particular value to humans. Some species of Chamaedaphne, Craibiodendron, Leucothoë, Lyonia, Pieris, and Rhododendron contain more or less toxic diterpenes, which are harmful to humans or domestic animals.[1]

Physical Description

ID Features: Small, 4-ranked leaves forming a square-appearing shoot. Separate from Erica sp. by the bloom time; late summer for. Calluna, early spring for Erica.

Habit: A low-growing evergreen groundcover. Branching is upright and thick mats are formed. Old plants become irregular and untidy. Generally dense and compact .

Flowers: Rosy to purplish pink for species. Blooms in late summer and early autumn. Individual flowers are only 0.25" long, but are clustered in several inch . ling racemes . • Bloom Period: June, July, August, September, October, November. • Flower Color: near white, pink, purple, red, white

Seeds: Fruit: Small dehiscent capsule. Matures in October. Not an ornamental feature.

Foliage: Summer foliage: Leaves are very small, mostly 0.05" to .1" long. Evergreen . Scale-like leaves. Opposite arrangement . 4-ranked, making shoots look squarish. Medium green color. • Fall foliage: Exposure in winter makes foliage develop a bronze, yellow, reddish or. silvery cast depending on the cultivar.

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 2' to 3' tall with an equivalent spread

Landscaping

Landscape Uses: Foreground of a border . Foundation plant. For its bloom in late summer. As a groundcover. For rock gardens. • Liabilities: A difficult plant to get to survive in most landscapes. Perfect soil drainage and adequate soil moisture are required. Guaranteed to die if given too much nitrogen.

Habitat

Zone 5, warmer parts of 4.

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Culture: Full sun . Perfectly-drained, moist, acidic soil high in organic matter. Avoid high fertility at all costs. Transplant from containers . Avoid dry, windswept sites. Do not allow to dry out and do not overwater.

Soil: Minimum pH: 4.5 • Maximum pH: 6.5

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun .

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9a. (map)

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

Callitris gunnii Hook. F. • Callitris oblonga corangensis K. D. Hill • Callitris oblonga parva K. D. Hill • Frenela fruticosa Endl. • Frenela gunnii (Hook. F.) Endl. • Frenela macrostachya Knight and Perry Ex Gordon

Notes

Publishing author : Hull Publication : Brit . Fl. , ed 2 (Hull) 114 1808

Basionym author: (L.)

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Calluna

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 68 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

C. vulgaris (Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Aberdeen' (Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Allegro' (Scottish Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Alportii' (Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Alys Sutcliffe' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Amethyst' (Amethyst Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Anette' (Anette Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Aphrodite' (Aphrodite Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Arran's Gold' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Aurea' (Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Blazeaway' (Blazeaway Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Branchy Anne' (Branchy Anne Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Corbett Red' (Corbett Red Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Corbett's Red' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'County Wicklow' (Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Cuprea' (Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Dainty Bess' (Dainty Bess Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Darkness' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Dark Beauty' (Dark Beauty Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Dart's Hedge Hog' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Else Frye' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Elsie Purnell' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Firefly' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Flamingo' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Fortyniner Gold' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Foxii Nana' (Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Golden Carpet' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Goldsworth Crimson' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'H.E. Beale' (Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Jimmy Dyce' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Juno' (Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'J.H. Hamilton' (J. H.. Hamilton Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Kinlochruel' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Lukas' (Heather 'lukas') · C. vulgaris 'Madlene' (Heather 'madlene') · C. vulgaris 'Mairs Variety' (Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Melanie' (Melanie Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Miranda' (Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Mrs Ronald Gray' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Mrs. Pat' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Multicolor' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Myrna' (Heather 'myrna') · C. vulgaris 'Nana Compacta' (Dwarf Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Pat's Gold' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Pygmaea' (Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Robert Chapman' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Roswitha' (Roswitha Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Sandy' (Sandy Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Sanne' (Heather 'sanne') · C. vulgaris 'Sascha' (Heather 'sascha') · C. vulgaris 'Savannah' (Heather 'savannah') · C. vulgaris 'Silver King' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Silver Knight' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Silver Queen' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Silver Rose' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Sir John Charrington' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Sister Anne' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Spring Cream' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Spring Torch' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Sunset' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Tib' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Tomentosa' (Tomentosa Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Valorian' (Valorian Scotch Heather) · C. vulgaris 'Velvet Fascination' (Scottish Heather) · C. vulgaris 'White Lawn' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Wicklow Spring' (Heather 'wicklow Spring') · C. vulgaris 'Winter Chocolate' (Ling) · C. vulgaris 'Zipi' (Heather 'zipi')

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 17, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Mingyuan Fang, Ruizheng Fang, Mingyou He, Linzheng Hu, Hanbi Yang, Haining Qin, Tianlu Min, David F. Chamberlain, Peter Stevens, Gary D. Wallace & Arne Anderberg "Ericaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 14 Page 242. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/15/2012