Erica eremioides (Macowan) E.G.H.Oliv.

Low compact to spreading shrublet up to 200(-400) mm tall and up to 2 m across, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: many main branches either elongating vegetatively or ending in an inflorescence with many short secondary and very short tertiary flowering branchlets 5-20 mm and 2 mm long respectively, puberulous and with scattered short-stalked glands admixed, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, imbricate, erect to spreading, straight to recurved, 2.0-3.0 x 0.5 mm, linear to lanceolate, rarely ovate, apex acute, at base adaxially flattened and abaxially rounded with an acute edge, the upper half rounded on both sides with round edges, rarely completely rounded, narrowly sulcate, glabrous or puberulous or just adaxially puberulous, edges ciliate with short simple hairs and short-stalked or sessile glands, with an apical gland; petiole adpressed, ciliate. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1 whorl terminal on secondary and tertiary branchlets closely arranged and spike-like, very rarely on 10 mm long secondary branchlets only; pedicel very short 0.1-0.2(-0.4) mm long, glabrous or puberulous; bract partially recaulescent in middle position to approximate to calyx, 0.6-1.5 mm long, from linear to elliptic to ovate, apex acute to obtuse, narrowly sulcate 1/4-1/3 its length, glabrous or pubescent, ciliate and with or without short-stalked glands, white; bracteoles 2, same as bract, occasionally slightly shorter. Calyx 4-lobed, 0.6-1.8 x 0.8-1.0 mm, cyathiform, white, glabrous or puberulous; lobes erect to slightly incurved, 1/2-3/4 as long as calyx, elliptic to ovate to subquadrate, apex acute-cuspidate with or without a keel-tip, narrowly sulcate 1/4-1/2 the length of lobe, edges ciliate and mostly with shortly stalked glands occasionally sessile glands. Corolla 4-lobed, 2.0-3.0 x 1.2-1.7 mm, obconic to funnel-shaped, rarely tubular, puberulous on lower half, rarely completely glabrous, colliculate to smooth, white; lobes 1/6-1/5 of corolla length, erect or slightly incurved, apex obtuse to subacute, margin entire or erose. Stamens 4, included or manifest; filaments narrowly linear with a sigmoid bend below anther, glabrous; anthers bipartite, dorsifixed near base, subquadrate, spurred; thecae erect parallel and well separated to apically touching, up to 1.1 mm long, oblong, minutely aculeate; spurs linear 1/3-1/2 as long as thecae, linear, pendulous or occasionally turning outwards, pubescent; pore 1/3-1/2 the length of theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 2[3]-locular, 0.5 x 0.3 mm, ovoid to ellipsoid, apex obtuse, puberulous or glabrous with a few apical hairs, with distinct basal nectaries; ovules 1[2] per locule, pendulous, placenta apical; style far exserted, up to 2x the length of corolla, filiform, often curved, glabrous; stigma subtruncate to minutely cyathiform. Fruit indehiscent, 0.8 x 0.6 mm, ellipsoid, red-brown; pericarp brittle, thin to slightly thickened, exocarp colliculate, mesocarp red with many crystals, endocarp extremely thin not visible; seeds ellipsoid, testa extremely thin, cells with anticlinal walls hardly visible, probably elongate-undulate to jigsawed but with undulate thickened longitudinal ribs.