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

Erect compact bushy shrublet up to 0.5 m tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: numerous erect main branches mostly continuing vegetative growth, rarely terminating in an inflorescence, and many short secondary flowering branches 1-2 mm long, puberulous with a scattering of thicker subplumose hairs interspersed, soon becoming glabrous and grey, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, erect, slightly imbricate, 1.5-3.5 x 0.5 mm, oblong-elliptic to ovate, adaxially flattened or slightly concave, abaxially rounded and narrowly sulcate, apex acute, edges acute, glabrous to strigulose towards edges, ciliolate and with sessile glands when young; petiole adpressed, 0.4-0.5 mm long, glabrous to puberulous, ciliolate. Inflorescence: flowers (1-)3-nate in 1 whorl, terminal on secondary short branchlets, usually towards ends of main branches; pedicel 0.2-0.3 mm long, glabrous or sparsely pubescent; bract fully recaulescent as the abaxial lobe of the calyx; bracteoles 2, fully recaulescent as the lateral lobes of the calyx. Calyx unequally 4-lobed, 0.6 x 1.0 mm, campanulate, glabrous; lobes subequal about 1/3-1/2 the length of the corolla tube, the larger sometimes longer than tube, deltoid, with very small subapical sulcus (longer on abaxial larger lobe), ciliolate and with some small viscid sessile glands, yellowish green. Corolla 4-lobed, 0.9-1.5 x 0.9-1.3 mm, cyathiform to obovoid, glabrous, sometimes minutely tuberculate apically, thin and dirty white; lobes 1/4 the length of corolla, obtuse to subacute, erect to incurved, erase. Stamens 4-6[7], included to manifest; filaments 0.5 mm long, mostly fully fused, occasionally partially so and oblong, thin, semitransparent, straight, glabrous; anthers bilobed, dorsally attached near base, as broad as long to ovate, muticous; thecae erect adpressed, 0.6-1.1 mm long, oblong to ovate, glabrous to tuberculate above; pore 1/3-1/2 the length of theca; pollen in tetrads. Ovary 1[2 or 3]-locular, 0.5 x 0.4 mm, ovoid, apex subacute, slightly 8-ridged, pubescent in upper half mainly along ridges; ovules 2[1 or 3] per locule, i.e. G1/2.2/2.2/1[1/1.1/3], pendulous, placenta apical; style 0.3-0.5 mm long, glabrous; stigma manifest to exserted, 0.5-0.8 mm broad, broadly cyathiform-funnelshaped, glabrous or rarely with a few hairs below, red. Fruit indehiscent, 1.5-2.0 x 1.3-2.0 mm, globose, sometimes laterally compressed, apex obtuse, obscurely 8-ridged, pubescent on ridges, otherwise smooth to reticulate, pericarp hard but brittle, mesocarp main thickness with many crystals, endocarp very thin unlignified; seeds very hard with thick testa adhering to endocarp, cells slightly elongate, radial walls externally straight but internally jigsawed, many pits present. Flowering time: November to April and fruiting August to December, but variable according to locality and altitude.