Ceratiola ericoides

Ceratiola ericoides
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Ericales
Family:	Ericaceae
Genus:	Ceratiola
Species:	C. ericoides
Binomial name
Ceratiola ericoides Michx.

The Sandhill-rosemary, Florida-rosemary or sand heath, Ceratiola ericoides, is a species of shrub usually included in the plant family Ericaceae, though treated by some botanists in the Empetraceae.

It is native to infertile, dry sandy sites in the coastal southeastern United States, in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina. It commonly occurs together with sand pine and species of oak. Like sand pine, it is adapted to regenerate by seed after periodic forest fires.

Its habitat is important for the endangered Florida sand skink (Neoseps reynoldsi) in central Florida.

The name derives from the species' superficial similarity to the unrelated European shrub rosemary, familiar for its leaves used as a herb. Florida-rosemary is not edible.

Rosemary can grow to about 1.5 to 8 feet tall. This is not the kind you use for cooking. It flowers in spring, summer and fall, and grows in the maritime hammocks.

External links

• Fact sheet on the species, from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources