Stressed heather lacks purple haze

ENGLAND’S celebrated heather landscapes have turned from a glorious purple to a muddy brown this year due to climate change and an increase in pests.

Through August and into early September, the hills at Long Mynd in Shropshire and at Holnicote on Exmoor are typically covered in a haze of purple. But this year the National Trust reports that up to three quarters of the heather is in poor health.

Last summer’s extreme weather left plants an orangey-brown colour – a sign that they are seriously stressed and unlikely to flower. The following mild winter then meant temperatures were not cold enough to kill off the larvae of the heather beetle, which damage the outer layers of the leaf.

This combination means there will be no mass flowering this year and has serious impacts on other wildlife, such as the red grouse and emperor moth. Samantha Herbert