Erica ciliaris
Erica ciliaris, the dorset heath, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Erica.
Description
It grows to, and has leaves long, with long, glandular hairs. The flowers are long, bright pink, and arranged in long racemes.
Distribution and habitat
Erica ciliaris has a Lusitanian distribution, stretching from Morocco in the south, along the Atlantic coasts of Portugal, Spain and France to south-western parts of the British Isles in the north. In the British Isles, it is only found natively in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and one location in County Galway, where it lives in bogs and wet heaths. It has also been introduced to Hampshire.
In culture
E. ciliaris was voted the County flowers of [the United Kingdom|county flower] of Dorset in 2002 following a poll by the wild flora conservation charity Plantlife.