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

Low, sprawling to prostrate, creeping shrublet up to 300 mm tall, single-stemmed. Branches: few horizontal main branches with continuous vegetative growth and numerous short flowering secondary and tertiary branches 2-10 mm long, all puberulous with sessile and short-stalked glands interspersed. Leaves 3-nate, recurved, 1.5-2.0 x 0.7 mm, oblong-lanceolate to ovate, flattened on both sides but rounded in upper 1/4 or rounded on both sides along midrib with flattened margins, narrow-sulcate, apex acute, glabrous, slightly puberulous adaxially when young, margins with ±4 long stalked glands and ciliolate; petiole adpressed, 0.3 mm long, ciliate. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1(2) whorls, terminally on secondary and tertiary branchlets, these often crowded together in spike-like synflorescences; pedicel short, c. 0.1 mm long, glabrous; bract partially recaulescent, approximate in position, subspreading to spreading, 1.0 x 0.6 mm, ovate to broadly oblong, subapically rounded with an acute broadly sulcate carinate apex, distinctly ridged down midrib, glabrous, ciliolate, slightly scarious, white turning pink; bracteoles 2, like bract but slightly shorter. Calyx 4-lobed, c. 1/3 fused, 1.7 x 2.0 mm, obconical-cyathiform, slightly scarious, white turning pink; lobes imbricate, broadly elliptic to orbicular, apex broadly rounded with a broadly sulcate-carinate apex 1/3 length of lobe, glabrous or puberulous at apex, long ciliate and often with short-stalked glands apically. Corolla 4-lobed, 1.7-2.5 x 2.3 mm, obconical rarely campanulate with pouched base, with distinct narrow ridge down the veins opposite the lobes, white turning pink, sparsely pubescent in lower half; lobes erect, broadly rounded, obtuse or subacute, entire or erose. Stamens 8, free, included to manifest; filaments linear, with slight apical sigmoid bend below anther, delicate, glabrous; anthers bipartite, dorsally attached near the base, oblong, spurred; thecae erect, separate, 0.4-0.8 mm long, oblong, aculeate, yellow to orange darker dorsally; spurs attached dorsally near base, thin filiform, curving abaxially; pore 1/3 length of the theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 1(2)-locular, 0.3 x 0.4 mm, broadly and obliquely flattened-ellipsoid when 1-locular, flattened-spheroid when 2-locular, pubescent towards apex, rarely completely glabrous, smooth, apex broadly rounded, with distinct basal nectaries; ovule 1, pendulous, placenta apical; style exserted to 1.5x the corolla, filiform, eccentric in 1-locular ovary, curved basally and apically, glabrous; stigma simple-truncate to very slightly cyathiform. Fruit indehiscent, ovoid-ellipsoid, not much larger than ovary; pericarp brown, thin, not hard but brittle, mesocarp with many crystals, endocarp very thin; seed ellipsoid, testa very thin with slightly elongate cells with ± straight anticlinal walls, no pits. Flowering time: September to November, to January at high altitude.