Heather Calluna vulgaris (Fr. Callune).
Heather is a perennial evergreen sub-shrub. In France it has lots of names -- Béruée, Brande, Bruyère commune, Bucane, Fausse Bruyère, Grosse Brande, Péterolle or Bruyère callune. The scientific name comes from the Greek word for 'sweep' or 'clean', a reference to the use of heather to make rudimentary brooms.
The plant is considered by some to have protective magical powers.
It usually grows to about 20 - 50 cm high and is the most common member of the Ericaceae family. Calluna vulgaris can be distinguished from Bell Heather Erica cinerea by the four scale like leaves around the stem in C. vulgaris, and only three needle like leaves in E. cinerea. The mnemonic in French for remembering how to tell the difference is Callune 'calme' and Bruyere (Erica) 'bruit' because when you run your hand across the plant it will be quiet if it is Calluna and noisy if it is Erica.
Wild Calluna flowers are made up of a mauve coloured and petal like calix surrounding a mauve four petalled flower. They appear at the end of summer.
Heather copes with being lightly grazed, and can regenerate after a fire. Indeed sometimes controlled burning is used to manage it.
Heather can be an important source of nourishment for sheep and Roe Deer, as they can graze on it even when snow is covering other vegetation. Heather is also the plant host for a number of insects, for example the Heather Beetle. The caterpillars of several different lepidoptera species likewise depend on it for their food source, such as the Silver-studded Blue, Small Emperor Moth and the Chalk Burnet.
It is found throughout Europe and Asia Minor on sunny acid soil, a characteristic plant of heaths, bogs and pine forests.
Heather is a very nectar rich plant. The resulting honey is strong tasting and has a distinctive gelatinous texture.
There are thousands of cultivars, with colours ranging from white to red, developed for late season interest in the garden.
Before the use of hops in brewing, heather was one of the aromatics used in brewing in the Middle Ages.
Like other heathland plants, lichens and fungi, heather is liable to accumulate heavy metals and radioactive elements from the soil. Any animal grazing on heather is also liable to absorb these substances.
2 comments:
What about Erica tetralix.... leaves in whorls of four and named Cross-leaved Heath.
Fitter's "An Atlas of the WILDFLOWERS of Britain and Northern Europe" [1978] shows it well south of the Loire.... but in the intervening five decades [damned near], perhaps climate change and habitat loss have pushed it firther north?
Tim: Oh yeah! Forgot about this one. Not very common here in my experience, but you are quite right -- the exception to the rule.
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