Erica amicorum E.G.H.Oliv.

Prostrate delicate creeping shrublet. Branches up to 1.5 m long spreading through restioid vegetation, glabrous, brown, with long internodes, side branches often curved, bark irregularly sloughing off in grey portions. Leaves 3-nate, 5-6 x 4-4.5 mm, patent, ovate to subcircular with an attenuate apex and slightly inrolled margins to sub-naviculate, ciliate with very short hairs and long stout hairs, sparsely puberulous adaxially when young, sometimes glandular-ciliate along the pseudomargin adaxially, crisped pubescent abaxially and with a few stout gland-tipped hairs along the midrib; petiole 0.8-1.0 mm long, puberulous when young, ciliate. Flowers 1-2-nate at ends of lateral absolute brachyblasts or 1-3-nate at ends of branchlets, sometimes mixed in a synflorescence; pedicel 3-5 mm long tapering to the base, glabrous or sparsely glandular villous, sometimes puberulous when young, dark red; bract 0.5-1.0 mm long, basal, occasionally submedian, narrowly attenuate-ovate or elliptic-oblong, with or without a sulcate tip; bracteoles 2, opposite, subbasal to submedian, 0.4-0.7 mm long elliptic-oblong, acute, ciliate and with sessile glands. Calyx deeply 4-lobed, lobes almost free, 1.7 x 1.5 mm broadly ovate with a sulcate apex, at first erect becoming reflexed, ciliate with fine hairs and short stout glands, pink becoming dark red. Corolla deeply 4-lobed, tube 0.8 mm long, very broadly cyathiform, lobes 2.9 x 2.2 mm broadly naviculate-elliptic, obtuse to truncate, spreading, becoming reflexed, finely puberulous and finely ciliate and with 5-6 stout short gland-tipped cilia, pink becoming dark red. Stamens 8, exserted, at first erect, becoming reflexed into the reflexed corolla lobes, the alternate stamens reflexed over the interstices; filaments 2 mm long, rather thick, subterete, joined into a thick ring at the base, glabrous with a toothed apex; anthers erect, dark brown dorsally attached near the base, thecae 1.2 mm long, obtuse, slightly prognathous or with downwardly pointing sharp base, scabridulous, pore ± 1/3 length of the theca, pollen in tetrads. Ovary manifest becoming fully exserted, flattened globose, echinoid, covered with short to long glandular hairs with a slight disk below; style exserted, filiform, 2.8-3.2 mm long; stigma simple. Capsule globose, glandular setose; seeds ellipsoid to subspherical, reticulate.