Erica benthamiana E.G.H.Oliv.

Erect many branched shrublet to 0.3(-0.6) m tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: numerous erect main branches with many secondary and tertiary short flowering branchlets 1-10 mm long, densely pubescent to densely pubescent and vdlous, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3[4]-nate, erect incurved, rarely spreading, imbricate, 2.0-4.0 x 0.7 mm, short and ovate to long and oblong, narrowly sulcate, adaxially flat, abaxially rounded, glabrous to sparsely hirsute on both sides, sparsely ciliate rarely with sessile glands intermixed; petiole adpressed, 0.5-0.9 mm long, ciliate. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 2 or 3 whorls in a compact raceme, terminal on main branches and also (1)2-or 3-flowered in 1 whorl on secondary and tertiary very short lateral branchlets 1 mm long, the subtending leaves often reduced and bracteose, all inflorescences aggregated into dense head-like terminal synflorescences; pedicel 0.2-0.4 mm long to indistinguishable from the occasionally swollen base of calyx, glabrous; bract non-recaulescent, mostly 0.5 mm long, oblong, bracteose, glabrous, ciliate, pink; bracteoles absent. Calyx 4-lobed. 1.2-1.7 x 0.5 mm, narrow cyathiform to obconical, devoid of any grooves, slightly cartilaginous, pink becoming brown, glabrous to sparsely pubescent to sparsely hirsute on tube, smooth to colliculate; lobes 0.2-0.3 mm long, deltoid acute to rounded, sulcus absent. Corolla 2-lobed, 2.0-3.5 x 0.6-1.5 mm, tubular to tubular ellipsoid to tubular obovoid, sometimes curved, from just longer than calyx to 2x as long, glabrous, colliculate, dull white to pinkish; lobes 0.3 mm long, broadly rounded, erect later incurved. Stamens 4, free, exserted; filaments 2-4 mm long, linear, straight, glabrous; anthers sometimes bipartite, oblong to V-shaped, basifixed, dark brown, muticous; thecae erect to spreading when older, 0.8 x 0.15 mm, oblong-subfalcate, aculeate; pore 1/4-1/3 the length of theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 2-locular, 0.5 x 0.3 mm, obovoid to ellipsoid, laterally flat, obtuse, glabrous to sparsely puberulous in upper half, with large basal nectaries; ovules 1 per locule, pendulous, placenta apical; style 2.0-4.5 mm long, 1.5x as long as corolla, filiform, glabrous; stigma simple truncate. Fruit indehiscent, 1 mm long, obovoid; pericarp very thin papery with many crystals; seeds ellipsoid, testa very thin, cells elongate with undulate anticlinal walls, without any pits.