Calluna vulgaris (family Ericaceae) is variously know as heather, Scotch heather
or Ling. The
scientific name derives from the Greek
kalluno, 'to cleanse' an allusion to the shrub's use in making brooms -
vulgaris means 'common'. Heather
forms the climax vegetation of dry heathlands and moors.
Apart from coastal regions where salt spray and winds prevent the growth of scrub and
trees, if the heathland is not grazed it will revert to scrub
and, eventually, forest. If the heather is grazed too hard, however, it will be destroyed
and grassland will replace the heath.
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The 'bell heather' which frequently grows with ling is a
heath and not a heather - it is properly known as
fine-leaved heath. The tiny, narrow and smooth leaves occur in
whorls of three and the bell-like flowers which appear in July and August and give it
the name 'bell-heather', although the same purple colour as those
of the heather, are much larger.
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Although the leaves of the densely-branched heather are tiny, the plants cast a deep
shade on the soil which keeps it cool and smothers other plants.
In the areas of Dorset, Hampshire and West Sussex heathlands
where they exist,
smooth snake bask in the sunshine to increase their body
temperature often entwining themselves in the branches of heather where they are
perfectly camouflaged to blend with the dappled background of sun and shade.
Adaptations
The leaves of the heather are small to present as small a surface as possible to
the wind not only to reduce the dessicating effect of transpiration but to prevent the
leaves being damaged by the wind. They are hairy and slightly rolled at the margins.
Their arrangement on the stem is opposite and decussate - thay also overlap each other
and this, with the rolling, helps to reduce transpiration.
Mycorhiza
The roots of both heathers and heaths penetrate deep below the soil's surface
in search of water and food. The roots do not bear root hairs in the normal way
but are, instead, clothed by a mass of fine fungal threads with which the plant
lives in symbiosis - a fungus of this type is known as a mycorhiza. The mycorhiza
grows into the surface layer of cells surrounding the root and their long and
very fine threads cover a much wider area than ordinary root hairs would reach.
Parasites
Heather is often covered in the pink thread-like stems of the plant parasite
dodder which has no chlorophyl and makes no food of its own
but taps into its host for all of tis nutrition.
Honey & Bee-Keeping
Heather is prized in bee-keeping - the honey made by bees from heather being favoured by
many people. Behives are frequently transported to moors and heaths before the heather
flowers open in late summer for the purpose. The nectar which attracts the bees
is secreted by eight little swellings between the stamens at the base of the flower.
DORSET
Agglestone Heath
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