Heather (redirected from Scotch heather)

heather: see heath, in botany.

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heather

 or Scotch heather

Low evergreen shrub (Calluna vulgaris) of the heath family, widespread in western Europe and Asia, North America, and Greenland. It is the chief vegetation on many wastelands of northern and western Europe. C. vulgaris is distinguished from true heaths, which are sometimes loosely called heather, by the lobes of its calyx (see flower), which conceal the petals; in true heaths the petals cover the calyx. Scotch heather has purple stems, close-leaved green shoots, and feathery spikes of bell-shaped flowers. It has various economic uses: large stems are made into brooms, shorter ones are tied into bundles that serve as brushes, and long trailing shoots are woven into baskets.

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heather

1. a low-growing evergreen Eurasian ericaceous shrub, Calluna vulgaris, that grows in dense masses on open ground and has clusters of small bell-shaped typically pinkish-purple flowers

2. any of certain similar plants

3. a purplish-red to pinkish-purple colour

4. of or relating to interwoven yarns of mixed colours

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heather [′heth·ər]

(botany)

Calluna vulgaris.An evergreen heath of northern and alpine regions distinguished by racemes of small purple-pink flowers.

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Heather 

(Calluna), a genus of plants of the family Ericaceae, represented by only one species (C. vulgaris). A low evergreen shrub, usually 30-70 cm high, it has numerous small, sessile, almost trihedral leaves that are tegularly arranged in four layers. The flowers are also small and numerous on young branches in more or less unilateral racemes; the corolla is lilac pinkish, sometimes white, shorter than the bright, laminated calyx, which is colored like the corolla.

Heather grows in pine forests, in burned-out forests, and in peat bogs, often forming dense thickets. It is found in Europe, predominantly in the northern half, Asia (mainly in the western portion), North Africa (Morocco), the Azores, Greenland, and the Atlantic coast of America. Heather is a good nectar-bearer but gives a tart, or even bitter, honey; it had fodder value, especially in the Atlantic countries of Western Europe. Flowering branches are used as winter bouquets. Sometimes representatives of the genus Erica are also called heather.

M. K. KIRPICHNIKOV