Heath

A heath (/ˈhiːθ/) is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation.

[2] They form extensive and highly diverse communities across Australia in humid and sub-humid areas where fire regimes with recurring burning are required for the maintenance of the heathlands.

Heathland is favoured where climatic conditions are typically hard and dry, particularly in summer, and soils acidic, of low fertility, and often sandy and very free-draining; a mire may occur where drainage is poor, but usually is only small in extent.

[5] Anthropogenic heath habitats are a cultural landscape that can be found worldwide in locations as diverse as northern and western Europe, the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, Madagascar and New Guinea.

These heaths were originally made or expanded by centuries of human clearance of the natural forest and woodland vegetation, by grazing and burning.