Bruc blanc, dinada (Catalan) | Urce, urce branca (Galician) | Urze branca, quiroga (Portuguese) |
Brezo arbóreo (Spanish) | Bruyère arborescente (French)
Heavily branched and upright, typically between 50 cm and 2 m in height despite occasionally developing into a small tree of up to 4 m, a height of 10 m in the Canary islands and even reaching a height of between 15-20 m in east Africa, at the foot of mount Kilimanjaro.
The secular use of its wood has greatly limited its tree-size reach in Europe.
The young branches of tree heather are whitish in colour and with sparsely covered hair. Its bark is dark and fibrous, shedding off in long fine strips.
The leaves are hairless, persistent, thin and long, folding in on themselves to form of a short needle towards the underside and giving the appearance of having a groove. Measuring 3-8 mm in length and 0.5-0.7 mm in width, they are arranged in whorls of 3 or 4, resembling the blades of a fan.
The flowers are whitish, sometimes pinkish and very small, of up to 3 mm in length, the stamen holding them in place for considerably longer, they grow in terminal clusters in pyramidal forms. They have a narrow, closed bell shape, their stamen remaining in the interior even when mature, unlike other species of heather whose stamen protrude outwards together with anthers (the upper part of the stamen that holds the pollen).
It is a typical plant needing an acidic substratum, characteristic of humid forests or humid conditions close to natural watercourses. Heather grows in the heart of beech, pine and oak forests, gathering together in extensive formations called heaths. They grow from sea level to a height of 2000 m.
´Heath land´ formed over a period of years, the soils of shady heaths are a very nutritious substrate used for the cultivation of garden plants. Firewood from tree heather is considered an excellent fuel and one of the best for making charcoal, as well as being valuable for wood ovens and foundries. Its wood a carmine red, hard and dense, highly regarded by cabinetmakers and wood turners for making small crafts. The roots are highly prized for making smoking pipes.
Erica is derived from the Greek erikein-ereiké, meaning to break, the reason being that once dried out, its branches snap readily, its leaves falling off easily too. The specific epithet arborea alludes to the height that the plant is capable of reaching.
