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Erica cerinthoides
Fire heath is a variable South African shrub in the heather family, grown for its tubular red flowers. It needs full sun, sharp drainage and acidic soil, and it resprouts well after fire.
Erica cerinthoides is a species of heath native to South Africa (the Cape Provinces, the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Provinces), Lesotho and Eswatini. Common names include fire erica, fire heath, red hairy heath, rooihaartjie or klipheide. Throughout its range the species shows marked variation in habit, flower characteristics and hairiness. A form with white flowers is found in Eswatini and the South African province of Mpumalanga while the variety E. cerinthoides var. barbertona has shorter flowers.
E. cerinthoides requires a position in full sun with good drainage, and acidic soil. It is frost sensitive, but can regrow following damage. Plants can be propagated from cuttings of current season's growth with a heel of older wood. They can also be grown from seed. In the UK it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
E. cerinthoides is endemic to southern Africa. Its range extends from the Cedarberg Mountains in the Western Cape to the Eastern Cape, Transkei, and Drakensberg, as well as Mpumalanga, Lesotho and Eswatini. Its northernmost limit is the Soutpansberg in the province of Limpopo. It grows in various habitats, from sea level to high mountains. It sprouts readily from the woody rootstock after fires which enables it to thrive when other vegetation is destroyed. Fire seems to stimulate flowering, and bushy plants of E. cerinthoides can be seen in flower against a blackened landscape.
Tree Heath · Spanish Heath · Hairy grey heather · Winter 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 cerinthoides 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.
