Vivid purple urn-shaped flowers in long spikes on a low heath shrub of dry slopes, flowering from July, with needle leaves in whorls of three
Bell heather — Erica cinerea.
Nature · Shrubs
Bell heather
Native · flowers Jul–Sep · dry heath and moor
Erica cinerea — Ericaceae
Bell heather is the deep purple-crimson heath of dry, well-drained slopes, flowering a few weeks before ordinary heather (ling) and often mixed through it. It is one of the three British heathers, and the easiest to tell from the other two by its bright urn-shaped bells and its leaves in whorls of three. It is most abundant in the north and west.
How to spot them
- ▸Small, vivid purple-pink urn- or bell-shaped flowers borne in elongated spikes up the stem, not in a terminal head
- ▸Dark green needle-like leaves in whorls of three, giving a bushy look
- ▸Flowers July to September, earlier than ling (Calluna, August to October)
- ▸Dry, well-drained acid heath, banks and rocky slopes, drier than the habitat of cross-leaved heath
- ▸Look-alikes: cross-leaved heath has larger, paler flowers clustered on one side at the tip, on greyer hairy leaves in fours; ling has tiny scale-like leaves in four rows and paler, smaller bells
How to know it
The species name means 'ashy-grey', but the flowers are among the deepest purples on British heathland
Bell heather — cinerea, from Latin cinereus.
Of Britain's three heathers, this is the one whose leaves come in threes and whose flowers open earliest
Bell heather, ahead of ling and cross-leaved heath.
Hives of honey bees are moved to the hills in July to feed on it for a dark upland honey
Bell heather, often mixed with ling in heather honey.
It thrives on cut-over peat banks and dry stony slopes, and is far commoner in the north and west than in the English Midlands and east
Bell heather — Erica cinerea.
Unlike its wet-heath cousin, its small flowers are strung up the stem rather than clustered on one side at the tip
Bell heather versus cross-leaved heath.
Quick-fire facts
- •Erica cinerea, family Ericaceae; native and widespread, most abundant in the north and west of Britain and Ireland (BSBI)
- •Flowers July to September (Wildlife Trusts; BSBI), earlier than ling, which flowers August to October
- •Leaves in whorls of three; cross-leaved heath, Erica tetralix, has them in whorls of four
- •Prefers dry, well-drained acid soils, where cross-leaved heath takes the wet ground and ling the ground in between
- •Its flowers give plentiful nectar to bees, butterflies, moths and flies; honey bee hives are often moved to the uplands in July for it
- •Grows to about 80 cm (BSBI identification guide)
- •Ericaceae depend on ericoid mycorrhizal fungi in fine hair roots to draw nitrogen and phosphorus from poor acid soils
- •Ling, Calluna vulgaris, is already covered on the site as 'Heather'; Calluna is a different genus with scale-like leaves
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Bell heather
- Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland — Erica cinerea L., Bell Heather