Besom heath
Erica scoparia L.
Also known as: Broom heath
Family: Ericaceae
40 cm to 2 m tall, sometimes more
Heaths, open woods and maquis on siliceous soils
Flowering: May – July
Full sun
Part shade
Hardy to about -12°C
❓ How do you recognise this plant?
Like tree heath, it can form a true upright shrub of more than a metre — the two species sometimes grow together on the same heaths and can even hybridise. 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.
🌸 Flowers
Tiny greenish bells, barely visible, borne in long narrow racemes at the ends of the shoots.
🍎 Fruits
Small dry capsules.
🪵 Bark
Slender, upright, hairless stems and twigs, forming a shrub with a narrow outline close to that of tree heath.
🗺️ Distribution
Western Europe, North Africa; present in France on the Atlantic coast, in the south-west and the Mediterranean south-east, including Corsica, on siliceous soils.
🐝 Value for pollinators
Inconspicuous greenish flowers, with little nectar compared with other heaths, occasionally visited by small insects.
✂️ Horticultural uses
Little used in ornamental horticulture; its fine, rigid twigs were traditionally bound into bundles to make brooms, hence its name.
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.
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