1 entry found.
Common Name: Heather, Sunset Heather
Botanical Name: Erica quadrangularis (E. persoluta) (AIR-i-ka kwa-DRAN-gu-lah-ris)
Decorative Life: 7-14 days.
Post Harvest Care
- Remove bottom leaves if present, recut stems under water and place into a fresh flower food solution.
- Leaves and flowers dry out easily.
- Member of the Ericaceae (heather, heath family).
- Native to South Africa (Cape Province).
- Related species include rhododendron, azalea, blueberry.
- Tiny bell-shaped flowers occur in dense clusters at stem ends.
- Stems are 8-12 inches long with needle-like leaves.
- Plant is a woody shrub, classed as a dicotyledon, leaves not parallel veined.
- Flowers are not fragrant.
Availability: Winter and spring.
Flower Color: Pink, purple, red, white.
Storage Specifics: 36-41F, up to 5 days in water.
- The Erica 'Sunset' heather cultivar was discovered in 1978 "as a seedling of unknown pollen parentage growing in a cultivated field of Erica persoluta,
the variety believed to be the seed parent, where it was noticed because of its early blooming and particularly because of its reaching full bloom, from base to tip, more than a month before the parent plant begins to bloom." It was the early blooming of the Erica 'Sunset', during the Christmas and Valentine's Day
seasons that distinguished it from other known varieties.
- The specific epithet name "quadrangularis" means four-angled. Erica is Greek from "ereike" (heather) and "ereiko" (to break), an infusion from the leaves was reputed to break bladder stones.
- Suitable for drying.