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Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
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'Erica ciliaris' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
A straggling shrub 6 to 12 in. high, with long prostrate stems from which the flowering branches spring erect in dense masses; young stems thickly covered with hairs. Leaves in whorls of threes, ovate, about 1⁄8 in. long, green above, whitish beneath, glabrous on both surfaces, but the edges furnished with long gland-tipped hairs; stalk scarcely perceptible. Flowers arranged in whorls of threes on erect terminal racemes, 2 to 5 in. long, and opening from late June to October. Corolla rosy red, pitcher-shaped, 3⁄8 in. long, suddenly and obliquely contracted towards the mouth, where are four rounded, shallow teeth. Sepals very similar to the smallest leaves, but more densely hairy on the margin; flower-stalk 1⁄10 in. long; seed-vessel quite glabrous.
Native of S.W. Europe, also of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, and W. Ireland. Among hardy heaths it is only likely to be confused with E. tetralix, but that species has its leaves in fours, and its flowers are arranged in short terminal umbels – not on an elongated axis as in E. ciliaris. The latter is charming for planting in broad masses for late summer and autumnal flowering.
The most notable new cultivar of this species is ‘David McClintock’, with greyish foliage and white or light pink flowers, tipped with mauvish pink. It is inclined to revert. The original plant was found growing wild in Brittany.