Submitted by, Aiswarya Bharathi Venkateshwari

ERICACEAE
Commonly known as heath/heather family

Description
It is a family of flowering plants found most commonly in acid and infertile growing conditions. They include shrubs, dwarf shrubs, herbs and trees. The family is large, with roughly 4000 species spread across 126 genera, making it the 14th most speciose family of flowering plants.

Examples
Cranberry Blueberry Huckleberry Azalea Rhododendron Common heaths and heathers - Erica, Cassiope, Daboecia, and Calluna etc.

Distribution and Ecology

They have a nearly worldwide distribution. Diversity centers in Western China and South Africa They grow primarily on acidic soils, all appear to be obligately mycorrhizal

Leaf anatomy
The leaves are simple and alternate, sometimes opposite and whorled. The stipules are absent EXSTIPULATE. Hairs present (in great variety, including branched, stellate and shaggy) Venation Pinnate, Palmate, Cross venulate.

Flowers
The flowers are bisexual and actinomorphic or sometimes, zygomorphic. The perianth is in two whorls (4-7 merous calyx of connate sepals, and a 4-7 merous corolla of connate petals)

Distinguishing features
The androecium has twice as many stamens as corolla lobes or petals. The anthers dehisce by terminal pores and pollen is usually released in tetrads. The gynoecium consists of a single compound pistil of 2-10 carpels, usually a single style. Ovary - superior or inferior ovary with 2-10 locules, each bearing numerous axile ovules. The fruit is a capsule or berry or drupe.

Pollination
Plants hermaphrodite (nearly always) or dioecious (Epigaea) Pollination - Entomophilous Mechanism - conspicuously specialized (occasionally - e.g. Kalmia, with explosively springing stamens), or unspecialized.

Economic Importance
Horticulture - Some species in the heath family are cultivated as ornamentals. Example - Arbutus, Heath, Heather, Rhododendron like rose bay or white laurel The fruits of most species of blueberries and cranberries (Vaccinium spp.) are important crops. They can gathered from the wild or cultivated extensively.

Agricultural Importance
Various species of blueberries are cultivated in agriculture, including the so-called lowbush blueberries (V. vacillans), and the taller, high-bush blueberries (V. corymbosum).

During the autumn harvest, cranberry fields are often flooded, and when the berries float to the surface, the fields provide a spectacularly red vista.

Commercial Importance
The mountain cranberry or cowberry (Vaccinium vitisidaea) is collected in the wild, and is used in Scandinavia to make jams and a distinctive wine and liquor. All cranberries and blueberries are used for making jams, pies and other foods. A relatively minor use of a member of the heath family is that of briar wood (Erica arborea) of Europe, the wood of which has been used to make pipes for smoking tobacco. The common wintergreen or checkerberry is a natural source of oil-of-wintergreen (or methyl salicylate) Oil of wintergreen Its used as a flavouring for gums, candies and other condiments This substance is also sometimes applied by massage as an analgesic for sore muscles. High doses are toxic. Small doses are said to relieve pain of rheumatism. Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, Then beauty is its own excuse for being!

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