Erica abbottii E.G.H.Oliv.

Shrublet sparse, weak, sprawling to 600 mm diam., pubescent all over and with scattered long gland-tipped hairs, the glands red. Branches thin and wiry with no infrafoliar ridges, internodes up to 10 mm long. Leaves 4-nate spreading, 2.5-3.0 mm long, oblong, acute, with a long apical hair, subopen-backed below; petiole 0.5 mm long, pubescent. Flowers 4-9 in heads at ends of main and lateral branches; pedicel 1.0-2.5 mm long, half the length of the corolla or shorter; bract median to sub-approximate, foliaceous, 2.5-3.5 mm long, linear-lanceolate; bracteoles 2, approximate, subfoliaceous, only terminally sulcate, 2.5-3.5 mm long, linear-lanceolate. Calyx 4-partite, 2.5-3.8 mm long, half as long as to just longer than the corolla, narrowly oblong. Corolla 4-lobed, 3-5 mm long, obovoid-urceolate or obconical, white, lobes erect, broadly rounded, papillate, not hairy. Stamens 8, free, included, half the length of the corolla; filaments linear, apically sigmoid, glabrous; anthers sub-basally attached, 0.8-1.3 mm long, glabrous, pale yellow, pore half the length of the theca, aristate, the awns simple, pointing downwards and half the length of the theca; pollen in tetrads. Ovary 4-locular with 4-6 ovules per locule, 0.8-1.0 mm long, subcylindric and obtuse, hispid with stellate hairs; style 2.0-2.2 mm long, glabrous; stigma simple, included. Fruit a dehiscent capsule with septa free to the base; seeds relatively large subsphaeroid, 0.6 mm in diam., reticulate with numerous small cells.