High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A heath or heathland is a dwarf-shrub habitat found on mainly low quality acidic soils, characterised by open, low growing woody vegetation, often dominated by plants of the Ericaceae. There are some clear differences between heath and moorland. for example moorland has a very peaty topsoil, it is also free draining whereas a heath is not, moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with - especially in Great Britain - a cooler and damper climate.