Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
HEATH. Jer 17:6; Jer 48:6. No true heath is found in Palestine. There is great probability that the dwarf juniper or savin (Juniperus sabina), which grows in the most sterile and desolate parts of the desert, is the plant intended. "Its gloomy, stunted appearance, with its scale-like leaves pressed close to its gnarled stems and cropped close by the wild goats, as it clings to the rocks about Petra, gives great force to the contrast suggested by
the prophet between him that trusteth in man, naked and destitute, and the man that trusteth in the Lord, flourishing as a tree planted by the waters." — Tristram.