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Erica arborea
Also called Brierroot, Briar Root
Tree heath (Erica arborea) is an evergreen shrub or small tree from the Mediterranean and East African mountains, grown for its fragrant white bell flowers. It needs acid soil and a sunny, open spot to do well.
Erica arborea, the tree heath or tree heather, is a species of flowering plant (angiosperms) in the heather family Ericaceae, native to the Mediterranean Basin and Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa. It is also cultivated as an ornamental.
The wood, known as briar root (French: bruyère, Catalan: bruc, Portuguese: betouro, Spanish: brezo), is extremely hard and heat-resistant, and is used for making smoking pipes. Leaf fossils attributed to this species were described for the Mio-Pleistocene deposit of São Jorge in Madeira Island.
The heather has a disjunct distribution, including both sides of the Mediterranean basin, the western Caucasus, tropical eastern African mountains, and the Arabian Peninsula.
The wood, known as briar root, is extremely hard, dense and heat-resistant, and is primarily used for making smoking pipes, as it does not affect the aroma of tobacco. The football-sized tubers are harvested at the age of 30 to 60 years. They are cooked for several hours, then dried for several months before they are further processed.
Spanish Heath · Hairy grey heather · Winter heath · Fire heath · Scotch heath · Darley Dale Heath · Irish Heath · Hairyflower Heath · Portuguese Heath · Erica mackaiana · Nine-pin heath · Erica multiflora
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Erica arborea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
