Erica brownii E.G.H.Oliv.

Compact much-branched shrublet up to 300 mm tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: numerous, flexuose, short, erect main branches with 2-3 reflexed, short, flowering, lateral branchlets 3-15 mm long, subglabrous with a few recurved short hairs and sessile glands, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 4[3]-nate, 1.5 x 0.5 mm, elliptic-ovate, subacute, flat adaxially, rounded abaxially, glabrous, edged with sessile glands and with apical tuft of hairs in young stage, narrowly sulcate; petiole adpressed, 0.3 mm long, glabrous, edged with a few short hairs and sessile glands. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate up to 5-verticillate in condensed head-like racemes terminal on main and lateral branchlets; pedicel 0.1 mm, glabrous; bract non-recaulescent, 1.2-1.5 x 0.3-0.5 mm, leaf-like, reducing in size in upper whorls; bracteoles absent. Calyx 3-lobed, 1.0 x 0.5 mm, narrowly cyathiform, acute-angular, the angles alternating with lobes, midrib slightly ridged, hairy on angles otherwise glabrous, thin in texture, pink to white, transparent on flat areas around midribs; lobes 0.3 mm long, subacute, slightly thickened very reduced to absent, ciliate. Corolla 3-lobed, 1.8 x 0.5 mm, tubular, tapering to the base inside calyx, exserted part shorter than calyx, glabrous, smooth, pink to maroon; lobes 0.15 mm long, acute. Stamens 3, free, exserted; filaments 3.0 mm long, linear, straight, glabrous; anthers basifixed, obovate, muticous, dark brown; thecae erect, adpressed, 0.5 x 0.3 mm, oblong, glabrous; pore 1/4 the length of thecae; pollen in monads. Ovary 1-locular, 0.3 x 0.15 mm, ellipsoid, acute, glabrous, with no nectaries around base; ovule 1, pendulous, placenta apical; style 3 mm long, exserted, glabrous; stigma distinctly peltate. Fruit indehiscent, 0.5 x 0.3 mm, ellipsoid; pericarp very thin with many crystals; seed ellipsoid, testa adhering to pericarp, very thin, cells elongate with jigsawed anticlinal walls and no pits.