Irish wildflowers BSBI map

Cross-leaved Heath, Erica tetralix, Fraoch naoscaí
Photographs: Ballingeary, Co. Cork

Cross-leaved Heath
Erica tetralix
Fraoch naoscaí
Family: Ericaceae

Flowering time: June-August. Evergreen shrub. Native.

Waxy pink flowers in terminal heads with woolly hairs on the lower side of the sepals. Downy ovary. Whorls of 4 narrow grey-green evergreen leaves with rolled back margins. It has erect twiggy branches and a straggly growth habit. Height: 20-60cm

Grows on acidic moors, bogs, heaths.

Similar: Hybridises with Mackay's Heath, E. mackayana. Only found on blanket bog in Donegal and Connemara.

Cross-leaved Heath, Erica tetralix, Fraoch naoscaí

Cross-leaved Heath, Erica tetralix, Fraoch naoscaí
Cross-leaved Heath, Erica tetralix, Fraoch naoscaí

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