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Portrait of Cross-leaved heath

Nature · Shrubs

Cross-leaved heath

Native · flowers Jun–Sep · bogs and wet heath

Erica tetralix — Ericaceae

Cross-leaved heath is the pale pink heath of boggy ground, the wet-heath member of Britain's three heathers. Its grey, hairy leaves stand in whorls of four, forming a cross when seen from above, and its larger, paler bells droop in a cluster at the tip of each shoot. It has declined sharply in southern England as wet heath has been drained.

How to spot them

  • ▸Larger, more inflated pale pink bells, 4 to 12 in a nodding cluster on one side of the shoot tip
  • ▸Grey-green, hairy leaves in whorls of four, with rolled-under margins
  • ▸Wet ground: bogs, wet heath and blanket peat, and the damp hollows of dry heaths
  • ▸Flowers from June, with a peak in July and August, a little before bell heather and ling
  • ▸Look-alikes: bell heather has smaller, deeper purple flowers strung up the stem and green leaves in threes; ling has tiny scale-like leaves

How to know it

Grey, hairy leaves in whorls of four give the stem a cross-shaped look, and pale pink bells nod in a cluster at the tip

Cross-leaved heath — Erica tetralix.

The species name is Greek for 'four', for its leaves that come in fours

Cross-leaved heath — tetralix.

Of Britain's three heathers, this is the one that grows in waterlogged, peaty ground

Cross-leaved heath, the heath of wet moor and bog.

Its pale bells are held in a terminal cluster, whereas its dry-ground relative strings its flowers up the stem

Cross-leaved heath versus bell heather.

Widespread and abundant in northern and western Britain, but declining in southern England as wet heaths are drained

Cross-leaved heath.

It flowers a little before ling and its close cousin of dry slopes, with a peak in July and August

Cross-leaved heath — Erica tetralix.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Erica tetralix, family Ericaceae; tetralix comes from the Greek for four, referring to the whorls of four leaves (BSBI)
  • •Flowers June to September (Wildlife Trusts), peaking in July and August (BSBI)
  • •Grows in very wet, nutrient-poor, peaty soils of about pH 4 to 5 (BSBI)
  • •Abundant throughout northern and western Britain and Ireland, but has declined sharply in southern England over the past 60 years (BSBI)
  • •Grows to about 30 cm, with grey hairy leaves and hairy sepals, unlike the green bell heather
  • •Its calyx is longer than the flower stalks, whereas bell heather's is shorter (BSBI)
  • •Cross-leaved heath, bell heather and ling (Calluna vulgaris) are the three British heathers; ling is on the site as 'Heather'
  • •A characteristic plant of the wet heath and mire habitats of Atlantic Britain

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