San Francisco Botanical Garden - Gardens

Erica canaliculata is located in the South Africa Garden (Beds 26b and 27g) and the Fragrance Garden (Bed 11a).

Scientific Name	Erica canaliculata
Family	Ericaceae
Plant Type	Evergreen shrub
Environment	Thrives in light, acid soils, moist winter conditions. Infrequent deep watering in summer months. Protect from prolonged exposure to frost. Full sun on the coast, partial shade inland.
Bloom	Profuse bloom in winter. Flower color is deeper in plants grown outdoors in cooler conditions than in greenhouse grown plants.
Uses	Ornamental used for winter color in perennial beds and borders, foundation plantings.
More Info	The Heather Society's world of heaths and heathers Christmas Heather at the Huntington Botanical Garden Rock Spray Nursery specializes in heaths and heathers

Profile Contributor: Fred Bové

Erica canaliculata
"Christmas Heather", "Channeled Heath"

"Christmas Heather" is a profuse blooming shrub from South Africa. The dainty urn-shaped lavender flowers with tiny black stamens cover the shrub completely in winter. Its leaves are evergreen, and dense. Canaliculata means channeled in Latin, and refers to corrugated grooves on the inner woody bark. Christmas Heather can grow to 6 feet.

Ericas are heaths, not heathers; both are members of the Ericaceae family but are in separate genera. More than 600 varieties of heath grow in the Cape Province region of South Africa, an area of 100 square miles at the tip of the continent, and a botanical wonderland. Three fourths of the plants there are endemic, meaning they occur nowhere else in the world. 8,550 species have been counted, twice as many as in California, which is four times larger.

South Africa has a mediterranean climate of mild winters and dry summers with few climate extremes, making it possible for a great variety of plants to prosper. We enjoy similar conditions in the Bay Area, and as a result, San Francisco Botanical Garden contains a great diversity of plants from the Cape Province.

Contributors: Docents Joanne Taylor and Kathy McNeil