a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler and damper climate.
Heaths are widespread worldwide but are fast disappearing and considered a rare habitat in Europe. [...] the tiny pockets of heathland in Europe are extremely depauperate with a flora consisting primarily of heather (Calluna vulgaris), heath (Erica species) and gorse (Ulex species). [...]
heath is also a common name for several species of plants, most commonly referring to heather; the violet-colored plants making up a majority of heathlands.
It was the night afore the great race, when I found him on the heath, in a booth that I know'd on.
Charles Dickens. Great Expectations (1861)
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after the first six months, she grew like a larch, and could walk and talk too, in her own way, before the heath blossomed a second time
Emily Brontë. Wuthering Heights (1847)
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My eye passed all other objects to rest on those most remote, the blue peaks; it was those I longed to surmount; all within their boundary of rock and heath seemed prison-ground, exile limits.