Species

Erica baccans

Etymology

Erica: From the Greek ereika 'heath' or 'heather'

Common Name(s)

berry heath

Family

Ericaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

NVS Species Code

ERIBAC

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.

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Trees & Shrubs

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

Year Naturalised

1937

Origin

S.W. Cape area, South Africa

Reason for Introduction

Ornamental

Life Cycle and Dispersal

Many thousands of seeds produced. Dispersed by gravity and humans (Atkinson 1997).

Tolerances

Requires low to medium soil fertility (Atkinson 1997).

This page last updated on 2 Sep 2013