Junior RangerS www.juniorrangers.com.au JR FACT FILE Common Heath impressa

At a Glance Where Does the Common (Pink) Heath Grow? Size: The Common Heath is found mainly Generally grows up to 1m in height, in southern ’s semi-shaded but can reach 2-3 metres. foothills and coastal heathlands. Distribution: Examples of parks it inhabits include; and Little Grows throughout south-eastern Desert National Park. It grows in Australia. areas from sea level to 1200 metres, What Is the Common and can also be found in NSW, SA (Pink) Heath? and . The Common Heath comes in a Other Interesting Facts variety of colours – scarlet, crimson, about the Common Heath: rose pink and white. The pink variety The tubular flowers of the Common has been Victoria’s Heath have at the bottom and since 1958. pollen near its opening. The Common Heath is most often occurs thanks to who found to be a small shrub of less than put their beaks deep into the flower a metre in height however it can so that they can drink the nectar and reach 2-3 metres in some locations. in the process they pick up pollen on The branches are stiff and have small their heads. The microscopic pollen leaves with a sharp point at the end. grains have narrow fins on them The flowers are narrow and tubular, which are designed to slide between up to 2.5 centimetres in length, and the edges of feathers so that they are occur in often densely packed clusters carried away by the bird. among the ends of the branches. Want to Know More? Flowering occurs from autumn www.anbg.gov.au/emblems/vic. through to spring. The flowers contain emblem.html nectar and are frequented by honey- eating birds.

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