Calluna vulgaris

Calluna vulgaris, commonly called Scotch heather, is a small, variably-sized, evergreen shrub. In optimum growing conditions, it will typically form thick mats of foliage. Tiny, four-ranked, scale-like leaves in overlapping pairs appear on slender stems rising on average to 60 cm tall. Leaves are typically gray to green in spring and summer but acquire bronze to purple tones in fall and winter. Rose pink to purplish pink flowers in terminal, one-sided, spike-like racemes appear in mid to late summer.