Cross-leaved Heath

Name: Cross-leaved Heath

Scientific name: Erica tetralix

Category: Flowers

Nature Stars: 20

What are nature stars?

About: This evergreen shrub gets its name from whorls of four crossed leaves along its stems. It prefers acid bogs and wet heath or moorland. Flowers between July and September.

How to identify: Look for pink, bell-shaped flowers clustered at the end of long, many branched stems.

Where: Widespread, found throughout the UK but most abundant in the North and West

Fantastic fact: Charles Darwin suspected this may be a carnivorous plant due to its sticky leaves.

Photograph credit: Eco Heathen