Erica erinus (klotzsch ex Benth.) E.g.h.oliv.

Compact densely branched wiry shrublets 150-300 mm tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: numerous main erect branches with short secondary branchlets 4-10 mm long and recurved, pubescent with a few short sessile glands intermixed, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3[4]-nate, erect to spreading, imbricate, 1.5-2.0 x 0.5 mm, ovate to linear-oblong, adaxially flat, abaxially obtuse, narrowly sulcate, glabrous to sparsely hirsute to hirsute, often edged with some sessile glands. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1-4 whorls, in condensed head-like racemes, terminal on main and secondary branchlets; pedicel adpressed, 0.1-0.2 mm long, glabrous; bract non-recaulescent, 1.0-1.5 x 0.3-0.5 mm, leaf-like but usually linear and bracteose, green to pink, glabrous or very sparsely hirsute, edged with sessile glands and a few hairs; bracteoles absent. Calyx 4-lobed, 1.0-2.0 x 0.8-1.0 mm, obconic, obtuse to acute angular opposite the lobes, hirsute to occasionally subglabrous, smooth; lobes 0.3-0.5 mm long, 1/3 the length of calyx, rounded deltoid, acute to obtuse, not sulcate, edged with sessile glands and a few long hairs. Corolla 4-lobed, 1.5-2.0 x 0.5-1.0 mm, obovoid, glabrous, pinkish purple; lobes 1.5x the length of corolla, broadly rounded, erect to slightly incurved. Stamens 4, free, exserted; filaments linear, up to 2x the length of corolla, weak and variously flexed; anthers dorsally attached near base, oblong, muticous; thecae erect adpressed, oblong, 1.2-0.2 mm, sparsely aculeate-edged, reddish brown; pore 1/6 the length of theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 1-locular, 0.3 x 0.15 mm, ellipsoid, acute, glabrous, without basal nectaries; ovule 1, pendulous, placenta apical; style exserted to 2x the length of corolla, glabrous; stigma peltate with an exserted stigmatic process. Fruit indehiscent, asymmetrically ellipsoid, 0.6 mm long; pericarp very thin, transparent, with many crystals; seeds ellipsoid, testa very thin, cells elongate with undulate anticlinal walls, no pits.