Heather - Calluna vulgaris

Short to medium carpeting plant to 80 cm. Leaves opposite, scale like and congested. Flowers pale purple to pinkish lilac, 3 to 4 mm in slender racemes.

Moors, open woodland, bogs and banks on acid soils.

July to September.

Perennial subshrub.

Widespread and fairly common though sometimes local in Britain.

Very local in Leicestershire and Rutland with most Leicestershire records coming from the Charnwood Forest area. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 37 of the 617 tetrads.