Calluna vulgaris.

Botanical name: 

Calluna vulgaris Salisb. Ericaceae. Heath.

Europe and North America. The Celtic tribes had a method of preparing an intoxicating drink from a decoction of heath. This beverage, mixed with wild honey, was their common drink at feasts. In the Hebrides, says Johnson, a kind of beer is formed by fermenting a mixture of two parts of heath tops and one of malt. The Picts had a mode of preparing beer or wine from the flowers of the heath.


Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick.