Erica cavartica E.G.H.Oliv. & I.M.Oliv.

Shrublets soft, sparse, procumbent, single-stemmed reseeders. Branches: few old main branches spreading up to 0.75 m long; numerous secondary branches 50-100 mm long, some bearing flowers; stems with mixture of fine, short, simple hairs and slightly longer, gland-tipped hairs, internodes 10-20 mm long on main branches, 3-10 mm long on secondary branches. Leaves 3-nate, spreading, broadly oblong, 4.0-6.5 x 15 mm, completely open-backed, flattened very thin, both surfaces and margins with sparse, delicate, gland-tipped hairs with fewer on abaxial surface and with a few, shorter, simple hairs admixed, midrib becoming thickened towards apex and beyond apex forming an apical, non-sticky, gland-tipped seta, ±0.7 mm long; petiole ±0.7 mm long with sparse gland-tipped hairs. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1-3 whorls raceme-like on main and secondary branches, subapical to far removed from apex, continuing growth apically; pedicel 10-20 mm long, covered with long and short gland-tipped hairs and short, simple hairs; bract not recaulescent, identical to a leaf on stem; bracteoles 2, near base of pedicel, ±4.0 x 1.1 mm, otherwise like bract or leaf. Calyx 4-partite, oblong-ovate, ±3.5 x 1.5 mm, green and leaf-like, idumentum as in bract and leaf. Corolla 4-lobed, shortly and broadly tubular, ±9.0 x 4.5 mm, sparsely and finely hairy with simple hairs, colour?; lobes erect, ±1 x 2 mm, subacute, margins entire. Stamens 8, free, just included; filaments elongate narrow-linear with broad, ± elliptic base, glabrous; anthers dorsally attached near base, oblong, ± 1.2 x 0.5 mm in adaxial view, bilobed, muticous; thecae erect adpressed, elliptic-oblong, ±1.2 x 0.4 mm in lateral view, smooth, brown, pore ±1/2 length of theca; pollen shed in tetrads. Ovary 4-locular, 8-lobed, oblate-globose, ±1.2 x 1.4 mm, emarginate, with distinct basal nectaries, glabrous; ovules ± 90 per locule, spreading from placenta the full length of columella; style exserted, ±9.5 mm long, glabrous; stigma simple truncate. Fruit a dehiscent capsule, ±2.2 x 3 mm, valves splitting ±1/2 way down and opening 30°-40°, with large, irregular wrinkles/folds, not hard and woody, septa mostly on valves. Seeds ellipsoid, ±0.4 x 0.3 mm, shiny, ± smooth, orange, testa cells elongate, ±75-125 x 25 µm, anticlinal walls thin jigsawed, inner periclinal walls with numerous small pits.