Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/erica-plant

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Erica tetralix

Species of flowering plant in the heather family Ericaceae

Summary

Species of flowering plant in the heather family Ericaceae

Erica tetralix, the cross-leaved heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to western Europe.

Description

It is a perennial subshrub with glandular leaves in whorls of four (whence the name). Appearing in summer and autumn, small pink bell-shaped flowers droop in compact clusters at the ends of the shoots.

Similar species

Related species E. cinerea has glabrous leaves in whorls of three. Calluna vulgaris has much smaller and scale-like leaves in opposite and decussate pairs.

Taxonomy

The sticky, adhesive glands on leaves, sepals and other parts of the plant prompted Charles Darwin to suggest that this species might be a protocarnivorous plant, but little, if any, research has been done on this.

Distribution and habitat

E. tetralix is native to western Europe from southern Portugal to central Norway, as well as a number of boggy regions further from the coast in Central Europe such as Austria and Switzerland. It has also been introduced to parts of North America.

E. tetralix can become a dominant part of the flora in bogs, wet heaths, and damp coniferous woodland.

Ecology

A species of Trialeurodes whitefly discovered in 1971 was named T. ericae for the plant, due to its frequent association with it.

Cultivation

In cultivation, like other heathers, E. tetralix requires an acidic soil, as it is a calcifuge. Numerous cultivars have been developed for garden use, of which E. tetralix f. alba 'Alba Mollis' (a white-flowered variety) and E. tetralix f. stellata 'Pink Star' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

In culture

It appears in the 1938 German marching song "Erika" by Herms Niel.

References

References

  1. Clive Stace. (2010). "New Flora of the British Isles". Cambridge University Press.
  2. Darwin, Charles. (1875). "Insectivorous Plants". J. Murray.
  3. "Distribution map (polar view)". Swedish Museum of Natural History.
  4. Bink-Moenen, Rosita M.. (1 February 1976). "A new whitefly of ''Erica tetralix: Trialeurodes ericae'' sp. n. (Homoptera, Aleyrodidae)". Entomologische Berichten.
  5. "''Erica tetralix'' f. ''alba'' 'Alba Mollis'". Royal Horticultural Society.
  6. "''Erica tetralix'' f. ''stellata'' 'Pink Star'". RHS.
  7. (July 2017). "AGM Plants - Ornamental". Royal Horticultural Society.
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

erica-(plant) flora-of-europe plants-described-in-1753 botanical-taxa-named-by-carl-linnaeus
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Erica tetralix — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report