A highly regarded garden plant, the common heath was first cultivated in England in 1825; over seventy named cultivars have been developed, most of which have now vanished.

[5][9][10] The type specimen of common heath was collected in 1793 by French botanist Jacques Labillardière in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) during a voyage with Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux.

Labillardière described it in his 1805 work Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen, giving it its current name Epacris impressa.

[12] The original mounted specimen is currently held at the National Herbarium of Victoria at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.

[11] Scottish botanist Robert Brown described Epacris ruscifolia in his 1810 work Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen alongside E.

[14][15] John Lindley described Epacris tomentosa from plant specimens collected during the third expedition of Thomas Mitchell in 1838.

[16] Dr Robert Graham described Epacris ceriflora (which he spelt ceraeflora) from plants cultivated at the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens in 1832.

[17] A year later, he described E. nivalis, which he called an "exceedingly beautiful species", from specimens growing in Loddiges nursery.

[18] In his landmark Flora Australiensis (1869), George Bentham argued that several previously described species were in fact a single species – E. impressa,[19] uniting E. variabilis, a short red-flowered E. campanulata, E. ruscifolia, which had narrow leaves and long flowers, the white-flowered E. nivalis, and short white-flowered E. ceraeflora.

He re-classified as a separate species – E. reclinata – several plants that Allan Cunningham had collected in the Blue Mountains and classified as E.

Those classified as ovata were collected at Twofold Bay and Mount Imlay in southeastern New South Wales as well as Woolnorth and Rocky Cape in northern Tasmania.

"[19] In his 1972 publication A Handbook to Plants in Victoria, Australian botanist Jim Willis expressed his view that dividing the species into subspecies was not feasible given that common heath is highly variable in flower colour and leaf shape, though he conceded the Grampians race grandiflora might be distinctive based on its larger corollas and coarser and hairier foliage.

[28] Research based on DNA profiling has revealed substantial genetic diversity within and between flower colour races and site populations.

[35] Insects recorded visiting white-flowered plants include the Australian painted lady (Vanessa kershawi) and yellow admiral (V. itea), as well as bees.

[25] Field work in southern Tasmania showed that the introduced bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) sometimes robbed nectar by piercing the base of the tube.

[39] Fieldwork in the Brisbane Ranges National Park in 1985 showed that there was some evidence that E. impressa seedlings were able to recolonise areas that had been infested with P. cinnamomi a decade before.

[43] Propagated from seed collected by William Baxter in southern Australia, common heath was introduced into cultivation in England by the Clapton Nursery in 1825.

[10] In 1873, a variety known as Epacris impressa alba was recorded as being grown commercially for cut flowers in Boston in the United States.

[46] As they age, plants may become straggly, but benefit from hard pruning after fertilizing and watering, which promotes compact, bushier growth.

[46] Along with other members of the genus, Epacris impressa initially proved difficult to grow and maintain on original soil in the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra.

Germination rates of soil-stored seeds have been found to increase substantially with the application of heat and aqueous solutions of smoke.

[53] Registered by the Australian Cultivar Registration Authority in 1988, it occurred naturally near the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne in Victoria, but its habitat has since been cleared.

[53][54] A double-flowered form of Epacris impressa was collected as early as the 1860s in Victoria when Government Botanist Ferdinand von Mueller sent a specimen to Kew Gardens.