 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".The Latin specific epithet "impressa" (meaning "impressed" or "indented") alludes to the indentations on the floral tube.