Heath (also Haide) is the name of a type of landscape and originally named the land uncultivated by humans, later also an absolutely barren landscape that could not be made arable.[1][2]
In the narrower sense, ecology understands it today as vegetation types of open land, which are characterized by low dwarf shrubs such as e.g. B. common heather, blueberry and cranberry are characterized by evergreen, hard foliage.[3] In particular, heaths are landscapes that are dominated by heather plants.
Since forests are naturally formed in the climate of the humid mid-latitudes, natural heaths - which are usually called dwarf shrub heaths - only appear under certain edaphic conditions (e.g. very lean, permeable limestone or sandy soils, dune formation on coasts, peat soil, rocky sites). before. The majority of the heathlands that exist today were created anthropogenically by centuries of excessive forest grazing with heavy browsing and/or coppice management on poor soils. As cultural landscapes, the continued existence of such heaths depends on permanent landscape management. Without these measures, forest would return.
Heathens were widespread in Europe's agriculture before the extensive soil-improving measures of the mid-20th century. Today only remnants remain, most of which are under nature protection
Source: Wikipedia