Featured Plant

With thousands of tiny flowers and evergreen leaves, several of the Garden's Erica species provide a welcome respite in a period of the year when many other plants are dormant or otherwise not at their colorful peak.

Consisting of hundreds of species, Erica species are found in the wild from South Africa to Europe, all the way to West and Central Asia. Most of the world's species are found in the fynbos of the Western and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The term "fynbos" is Dutch for "fine-leaved plants;" depending on locality, heaths can comprise a significant portion of the flora.

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Erica species are prostrate to tree-like, with most species forming shrubs up to 6 feet tall. A relative of rhododendrons and azaleas, heath species have a very similar flower color spectrum. Including whites, pinks, red, purples, and yellows, their bell- to urn-shaped flowers are borne terminally in racemes comprised of up to hundreds of flowers, depending on the species. Flowers occur on growth from the previous year and can present in most seasons of the year, again differing by species.