heath

noun

• 1chiefly British an area of open uncultivated land, typically on acid sandy soil, with characteristic vegetation of heather, gorse, and coarse grasses: horses were being exercised on the heath [mass noun]:the marshland gave way to heath and sandy scrub
• [mass noun] Ecology vegetation dominated by dwarf shrubs of the heather family: [as modifier]:heath vegetation

• 2a dwarf shrub with small leathery leaves and small pink or purple bell-shaped flowers, characteristic of heaths and moorland.

  • Erica and related genera, family Ericaceae: many species

• 3a small light brown and orange European butterfly which typically has eyespots on the wings, the caterpillar feeding on grasses.

  • Genus Coenonympha, subfamily Satyrinae, family Nymphalidae: several species, including the common small heath (C. pamphilus)

• 4a yellowish-brown chiefly day-flying European moth of heathland and grassland.

  • Several species in the family Geometridae