Erica baccans
Common name
berry heath
Family
Ericaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
ERIBAC
Conservation status
Not applicable
Habitat
Terrestrial.
Features
Glabrous shrub up to about 2 m tall. Leaves up to 9 mm long. Small pink bell-shaped flowers are held in bunches on the ends of stems. Corolla with 4 blunt ridges and depressions between them. Seed capsule to about 5 mm.
Similar taxa
The ridges and depressions of the carolla allow it to be distinguished from other Erica species in New Zealand.
Flowering
August, September, October, November, December
Flower colours
Red/Pink
Life cycle
Many thousands of seeds produced. Dispersed by gravity and humans (Atkinson 1997).
Year naturalised
1937
Origin
S.W. Cape area, South Africa
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Tolerances
Requires low to medium soil fertility (Atkinson 1997).
Etymology
erica: From the Greek ereika ‘heath’ or ‘heather’