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Erica vagans
Cornish heath is a vigorous, spreading, evergreen heather from western Europe that bears pink or lilac flowers in summer and autumn. It needs acidic or neutral soil, so on alkaline ground grow it in containers with ericaceous compost.
Erica vagans, the Cornish heath or wandering heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to Ireland, Cornwall, western France and Spain. It is a vigorous, spreading, evergreen heather reaching 75 cm (30 in) tall and wide, with pink flowers borne in racemes 14 cm (6 in) long in summer and autumn. The Latin specific epithet vagans literally means "wandering"; in this context it means "widely distributed".
Like almost all plants in the heath family (Ericaceae), E. vagans requires an acidic or, at the very least, neutral soil to thrive. In areas with alkaline (basic) soil, this can be achieved by planting E. vagans in containers with ericaceous compost. Numerous cultivars have been developed with a range of flower colours in white, pink, mauve and purple.
Tree Heath · 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
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Erica vagans 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.
