Erica alnea E.G.H.Oliv.

Shrub erect, to 600 mm tall, much branched, dense, lax and spreading in shady places. Branches hispidulous with no infrafoliar ridges, bark grey, flaking irregularly. Leaves 3-nate, appressed to spreading, reflexed in shaded plants, 2.0-2.5 x 0.6 mm, linear-elliptic, flat adaxially with acute margins, convex and sulcate abaxially, glabrous and shortly ciliolate; petiole ± 0.5 mm long, ciliolate, otherwise glabrous. Flowers 3 to 6-nate at ends of numerous short lateral branchlets; pedicel ± 2 mm long, glabrous or with occasional short hairs at base; bract median to remote, ± 0.5 mm long, oblong-lanceolate, slightly sulcate subapically, ciliolate; bracteoles opposite, just above bract and similar to bract. Calyx 4-lobed, fused in lower quarter, glabrous, lobes broadly ovate, subacute, glabrous, ciliolate, pink. Corolla 4-lobed, broadly ellipsoid, 2.0 x 1.5 mm, glabrous, pink, lobes broadly rounded, erect to incurved, one third the length of corolla. Stamens 8 included; filaments ± 0.5 mm long, oblong, almost straight, glabrous; anthers erect, muticous, glabrous, thecae ellipsoid, 0.8 x 0.3 mm, with a few stiff hairs ± 0.15 mm long on adaxial edges; pore two thirds the length of theca; pollen in tetrads. Ovary 4-locular, 8-lobed, globose and emarginate, 0.5 x 0.7 mm, glabrous, no nectaries basally, ovules 20-26 per locule pendent from large complete placenta; style 0.5-1.0 mm long, glabrous, red; stigma cyathiform, manifest to well exserted, red. Capsule globose, 1.4 x 1.0 mm, septa free from central axis; seeds 0.2 x 0.1 mm, subovoid-ellipsoid, irregularly angled, the angles often sharp, shallowly reticulate, yellow to yellowish brown. Flowers from May to October depending on the locality.