Wind pollinated heathers (in English)
Channel: Universitetshagene Bergen
Date: 14/07/2020

There's not so much colour in the heather garden in June/early July. The early flowering winter and Irish heath are over, and the later flowering bell-, cross leaved- and common heathers have yet to start flowering. However, you might overlook one species that is at its peak now because the flowers are so small. Erica scoparia is adapated to wind- instead of insect-pollination, and curiously it shares some of these characteristics with another, rather more spectacular, species flowering now: the Balkan heath, Erica spiculifolia. Join Michael Pirie for a closer look.