With over 100 species of Erica in the Klein River Mountains, you would be hard-pressed to call a winner amongst them in a beauty contest. But if one species were to take pride of place, then it would probably be Erica aristata. This is reflected in its common name Pride…
With over 800 species of Erica in the Cape, it is not surprising that inventiveness is needed in describing the names of the species. In fact it is even harder than that as many species have inadvertently been described more than once. In total, over 2,000 different names have been…
In colder climates, heath gardens are often created to provide winter colour, but in South Africa most heathers flower in spring or summer. However, there is a common heath, Erica imbricata, that flowers here at Phillipskop from June onwards. The flowers are white but they have contrasting dark brown exserted…
Erica corifolia is commonly known as the Dark-tip Heath. This is a reference to the pink flowers, which quickly fade from purplish to blackish brown at the tip soon after opening. But it does not stop there, for the whole flower quickly loses its colour and turns brown. This does…
There are many pretty species of Erica but only one truly bears the name: Erica pulchella. (“Pulchella” is the Latin diminutive for beautiful, i.e. pretty.) It forms low branched shrubs with numerous dense spikes of small purplish red urn-shaped flowers. It grows from the Cape Peninsula to Kogelberg, and along…
The Prince of Wales Heath, Erica perspicua is a well-known and beautiful heather of the Kogelberg. It gets its name from the long-tubed hairy purple and white flowers that bear a resemblance to the Prince of Wales Feathers. Erica perspicua also grows in the Klein River Mountains but here it…
