Erica cetrata E.G.H.Oliv.

Erect much-branched shrub up to 500 mm tall, multi-stemmed resprouter. Branches: numerous erect main branches either terminating in an inflorescence or continuing growth, with few flowering secondary branches 5-10 mm long, finely puberulous with reflexed hairs. Leaves 3-nate, erect, imbricate to as long as internodes, 1.5-2.5 x 0.5 mm, elliptic to ovate, apex subacute, adaxially flattened and puberulous, abaxially rounded and narrowly sulcate, glabrous, margins acute, when young edged with small sessile glands; petiole adpressed, 0.2 mm long, glabrous, ciliolate. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1(2) whorls, when 2-whorled then umbel-like, terminal on secondary branchlets and occasionally main branches; pedicel 1 mm long, glabrous or puberulous, pink; bract partially recaulescent in middle position or lower, ±1.0 x 0.5 mm, elliptic to obovoid, scarious, yellow with greenish narrow sulcus in upper third, margin ciliolate in lower half and with sessile glands in upper half; bracteoles 2, in middle position, 1.0-1.2 x 0.4 mm, otherwise like bract. Calyx 4-lobed, ±1.3 x 1.5 mm, broadly funnel-shaped, glabrous, scarious, yellow to pinkish; lobes 2x as long as tube, laterally imbricate, ovate to elliptic, apex rounded but with small acute tip, margin ciliate in lower half and with small sessile glands in upper half, narrow-sulcate 1/2 length of lobe. Corolla 4-lobed, ±2.2 x 2.0 mm, broad-obconical, glabrous, pink; lobes erect, 1/3 length of corolla, broad, slightly imbricate, entire to erose. Stamens 8[6], free, manifest; filaments ±1.5 mm long, oblong, straight of sometimes with slight sigmoid bend below anther, glabrous; anthers bilobed, narrow-cuneate, dorsifixed ±1/3 way up, brown-red, muticous; thecae ±1.1 mm long, oblong-elliptic, aculeate especially adaxially occasionally with a few hairs at base; pore 2/3 of theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 2-locular, ±0.6 x 0.4 mm, ellipsoid to ovoid, apex acute, densely pubescent mainly in upper half, no nectaries present; ovules 1[2] per locule, pendulous, placenta apical; style exserted, terete, up to 2x as long as corolla, glabrous; stigma peltate-cyathiform, dark red. Fruit indehiscent, 1.0 x 0.8 mm, complanate-ellipsoid; pericarp thin papery & brittle; seed ellipsoid, testa thin, slightly thickened, smooth to minutely indented, cells mostly elongate with slightly undulate to jigsawed anticlinal walls, with scattered small pits. Flowering time: September to November; the calyx remaining coloured for some time after fertilisation.