Erica anguliger (N.E.Br.) E.G.H.Oliv.

Shrub compact to open, low and spreading up to 150 mm tall sometimes erect or held erect by other vegetation to 300 mm tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: a few thick long main branches spreading to erect with erect to subspreading densely flowering secondary branches 100-150 mm long, with tertiary flowering branchlets 1-10 mm long. Leaves 3-nate, subspreading, imbricate to shorter than internodes, 1.5-3.0 x 0.4-0.5 mm, oblong to lanceolate, straight or slightly incurved, apex subacute, upper part rounded on both sides with rounded margins, at base flattened adaxially and rounded abaxially with subacute edges, narrowly sulcate, glabrous or puberulous or sometimes only sparsely so towards the edges, ciliolate with hairs or sessile glands or with sessile and shortly stalked glands; petiole adpressed, 0.5 mm long, glabrous or puberulous, sometimes ciliolate. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1[2] whorls, when 2 then umbel-like, terminally on secondary and tertiary branches; pedicel 0.1-0.2 mm long, glabrous or puberulous; bract approximate to calyx, 0.3-0.5 mm long, oblong to lanceolate, 1/4-1/2 as long as calyx, glabrous or puberulous, ciliolate occasionally with sessile glands; bracteoles 2, approximate, as long as bract or slightly shorter, otherwise similar. Calyx 4-lobed, when young 0.8-1.2 mm long, cyathiform to subcampanulate, 1/4-1I2 as long as corolla, glabrous or puberulous, rarely with shortly stalked glands also, smooth occasionally slightly angular or ribbed, green turning yellow, red or black; lobes erect, rarely subspreading, not imbricate laterally, 1/4-1/3 the calyx, triangular with acute apex, ciliolate or with sessile or stalked glands; enlarging and thickening considerably in fruiting stage to envelope the corolla or almost so, very variable in size, shape and surface features but always thick and fleshy when fresh becoming hard when old, from 1.3 x 1.4 mm and broadly obovoid to ovoid to ellipsoid to 3.0 x 1.2 mm and tubular sometimes with a constriction in the middle, the surface smooth or 4-ribbed, the ribs opposite or alternating with lobes, or 8-ribbed, the ribs narrow or broad, basal only or right up the tube, sometimes with lateral ridges, or surface variously alveolate or variously wrinkled. Corolla 4-lobed, very variable in shape and size, 1.5-4.0 x 1.0-1.5 mm, tubular, obconic or narrowly campanulate, often obliquely curved, mostly glabrous, rarely puberulous, colliculate, pink; lobes 1/8-1/4 the corolla, erect incurved or very slightly spreading, broadly triangular, apex acute rounded or truncate. Stamens 4, free, exserted; filaments 1.5-4.0 mm long, filiform, straight, glabrous; anthers bilobed, subbasifixed, narrowly elliptic to narrowly obovate, spurred or muticous even in the same flower, thecae 0.5-1.4 x 0.3-0.6 mm, oblong-elliptic and sometimes subfalcate, finely aculeate on edges otherwise glabrous, brown-red; spurs arising from the apex of filament, rarely from the theca, sometimes with only one per anther, 0.1 mm long or less and 0.05 mm wide, oblong or ovate, sometimes thick rather than flat, pendulous; pore 1/3 length of the theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 1-locular, 0.2 mm long, asymmetrically ovoid, apex acute, glabrous or puberulous sometimes only apically so, with distinct nectaries around base; ovule 1, pendulous, placenta apical; style exserted, up to 2x as long as corolla, filiform, straight or slightly curved, glabrous; stigma simple-truncate to minutely cyathiform, sometimes minutely peltate. Fruit indehiscent, hidden within the enlarged calyx, ±1.5 mm long, narrowly ellipsoid; pericarp thin paper-like or slightly thick and brittle with mesocarp and endocarp equally thick but not lignified, with many crystals present; seed narrowly ellipsoid, testa thin, free from pericarp, cells slightly elongate with undulate-jigsawed thick anticlinal walls, with large elongated joined pits on inner periclinal wall. Flowering time: Mostly February to May.