Besom heath or Tree heath: how to tell them apart?

Besom heath and Tree heath look alike and are often mixed up. Here is how to tell them apart, feature by feature, with their photos and the details to look for.

⚡ The quick answer

Besom heath

Erica scoparia

Tree heath

Erica arborea

These two heaths can form an upright shrub of similar outline, sometimes more than a metre tall, which sets them apart from the low heaths of the moors. But besom heath has tiny, barely visible greenish flowers borne in long narrow racemes, whereas tree heath bears numerous small, strongly scented white bells that cover the twigs abundantly — a good clue when both are in flower, less useful outside the flowering season when their outlines look more alike.

🍃 Leaves

Evergreen, very fine, linear, whorled in 3s or 4s, marked with two grooves beneath.

Evergreen, very fine needles in whorls, dark green

🌸 Flowers

Tiny greenish bells, barely visible, borne in long narrow racemes at the ends of the shoots.

Tiny scented white bells in great numbers

🍎 Fruits

Small dry capsules.

Small dry capsules

🪵 Bark

Slender, upright, hairless stems and twigs, forming a shrub with a narrow outline close to that of tree heath.

Reddish-brown bark peeling in strips, very hard root burl

📏 Size

40 cm to 2 m tall, sometimes more

1 to 3 m tall, sometimes more in the Mediterranean region

🗺️ Habitat

Heaths, open woods and maquis on siliceous soils

Garrigue, heaths, dry gardens, acid soils

⚠️ Toxicity

No known toxicity.

🔎 And from the Tree heath side

These two heaths can form an upright shrub of similar outline, sometimes more than a metre tall. But tree heath bears numerous small, strongly scented white bells that cover the twigs abundantly, whereas besom heath has tiny, barely visible greenish flowers borne in long narrow racemes — a good clue when both are in flower, less useful outside the flowering season when their outlines look more alike.

🌿 Go further

Want to practise spotting these details on real photos? Floraneo offers profiles and quizzes for dozens of look-alike species.

View the profile: Besom heath View the profile: Tree heath

ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.