Erica cerinthoides
species of plant
Erica cerinthoides is a species of heath native to South Africa (the Cape Provinces, the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Provinces), Lesotho and Eswatini. Common names include fire erica, fire heath, red hairy heath, rooihaartjie or klipheide. Throughout its range the species shows marked variation in habit, flower characteristics and hairiness. A form with white flowers is found in Eswatini and the South African province of Mpumalanga while the variety E. cerinthoides var. barbertona has shorter flowers.
Description
Erica cerinthoides is a variable plant over different parts of its range, varying in habit of growth, the hairiness of the leaves and the flowers, and the colour, size and shape of the flowers. Where it remains unburnt it can be a straggly bush over 1 metre (3+1⁄2 feet) tall, bare of leaves apart from a few extremities, and producing few flowers. Elsewhere it can be a compact small plant covered in blooms.
Etymology
The Latin specific epithet cerinthoides means "resembling honeywort (Cerinthe)". The flowers bear a superficial resemblance to flowers of that genus in the family Boraginaceae, though it is only distantly related.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12057227. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Erica cerinthoides” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.