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Besom heath

Erica scoparia · Ericaceae · all Erica records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Highly flammable — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions
No test or rating condition is normalized.
Fire ecology context
No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence
0 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
Global; Mediterranean France / Provence
Maintenance
No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
No state distribution is normalized.
Native range
No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
Introduced / established
No introduced or established row is normalized; that does not prove native status.
USDA hardiness
No hardiness value is normalized.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status
Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status
Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here
No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
Broader regional context
Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context
Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.
How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Besom heath (Erica scoparia)
Photo: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.
Form
shrub
Region
France; Mediterranean France; Spain
Rated in
Global; Mediterranean France / Provence
Family
Ericaceae
Evidence
19 cited sources

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Avoids (1)

Listed without a rating (18)

Fire-resistant shrubs instead

Mastic
Pistacia lentiscus Cistus salviifolius
Cistus salvaefolius Creeping Myoporum
Myoporum parvifolium Kinnikinnick
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi Kurrajong
Brachychiton populneus Calicotome spinosa
Calycotoma spinosa

Fire-resistant shrubs listed above

Same genus in the directory · the Erica group page

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata ·

Erica scoparia (Besom heath). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/erica-scoparia/. Last verified 2026-08-23.