Erica arboreaL.

Tree Heathbriar root

WFO wfo-0000671391 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Erica arborea, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. a Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-10 / obs. 198316558
Erica arborea, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. b Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 188284707
Erica arborea, photographed by Vicente Lopes
fig. c Vicente Lopes, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188627196
Erica arborea, photographed by Nico
fig. d Nico, CC0 1.0 / obs. 189220284
Erica arborea, photographed by Nico
fig. e Nico, CC0 1.0 / obs. 189220489
Erica arborea, photographed by Davide Puddu
fig. f Davide Puddu, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187324455
Erica arborea, photographed by John Lyden
fig. g John Lyden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186409952
Erica arborea, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. h Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186245413

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 34 botanical countries

Regions where Erica arborea is native: Algeria, Canary Is., Chad, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madeira, Morocco, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, East Aegean Is., Saudi Arabia, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Yemen, Albania, Baleares, Bulgaria, Corse, France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Türkiye-in-Europe AlgeriaChadDR CongoEritreaEthiopiaKenyaMoroccoRwandaSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTunisiaUgandaEast Aegean Is.Saudi ArabiaTranscaucasusTürkiyeYemenAlbaniaBulgariaCorseFranceGreeceItalyKritiNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalSiciliaSpainTürkiye-in-Europe Canary Is.MadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Erica arborea, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Canary Is. CNY
Chad CHA
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR
Rwanda RWA
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Tunisia TUN
Uganda UGA
Albania ALB EUROPE
Baleares BAL
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
East Aegean Is. EAI ASIA-TEMPERATE
Saudi Arabia SAU
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Yemen YEM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 701 in flower of 890 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Erica arborea observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 701 of 890 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 23 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Arsace arborea (L.) Fourr.
  • Erica acrophya Fresen.
  • Erica alpina (Bean) Osborn
  • Erica arborea f. arborea
  • Erica arborea subsp. canariensis ined.
  • Erica arborea subsp. parviflora Spirlet
  • Erica arborea subsp. riojana (Sennen & Elias) Romo
  • Erica arborea var. alpina Bean
  • Erica arborea var. arborea
  • Erica arborea var. genuina Nicotra
  • Erica arborea var. typica A.Fiori
  • Erica canariensis Rivas Mart., Martín Osorio & Wildpret
  • Erica cuadriflora Grisebach
  • Erica elata Hoffmanns. & Link
  • Erica lazaroana Rivas Goday & Bellot
  • Erica procera Salisb.
  • Erica riojana Sennen & Elias
  • Erica scoparia Thunb.
  • Erica stylosa Rudolph
  • Erica subcampanulata (Benth.) Rivas Goday & Bellot
  • Erica umbellata var. subcampanulata Benth.
  • Ericodes arboreum (L.) Kuntze
  • Ericoides arboreum (L.) Kuntze

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.