Erica glabella Thunb.

Erect bushy shrublet to 0.5 m tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: many erect main branches with many flowering secondary branchlets 0.2-2.0 mm long, pubescent with scattered subsessile glands intermixed. Leaves 4[3]-nate, erect to spreading, 2.0-5.0 x 0.6 mm, lanceolate to oblong, adaxially flat, abaxially rounded, acute to obtuse angular, narrowly sulcate sometimes widening towards the base, glabrous to pilose, sometimes with apical tuft, margin with shortly stalked glands; petiole adpressed, 0.5 mm long, glabrous, sparsely ciliate with or without sessile glands intermixed. Inflorescence: flowers 4-nate in 4-6 whorls, a condensed raceme but often with upper whorls subumbellate, terminal on main branches and secondary branchlets; pedicel 0.1-0.2 mm long, glabrous; bract non-recaulescent and leaf-like in lowest whorls to partially recaulescent, subapproximate and reduced to 1/2 size in the uppermost whorls, green; bracteoles occasionally 2 in lowest whorl otherwise absent, approximate, 0.5 mm long, bracteose. Calyx 4-lobed, 2.0 x 0.8-1.0 tubular to cyathiform, obtuse to acute angled with angles alternating with lobes, midrib thickened in groove forming distinct ridge, green, thick/fleshy, glabrous to sparsely pilose to pubescent, sometimes more so in groove; lobes erect, 0.5 mm long, triangular, sometimes with a distinct, more acute apex, narrowly sulcate, ciliate and with large non-sticky sessile glands intermixed. Corolla 4-lobed, 3.0-5.0 x 1.0-1.5 mm, tubular obovoid to tubular funnel-shaped, colliculate or smooth, pink. Stamens 4, free, exserted; filaments just longer than the corolla, linear, straight, glabrous; anthers subbasifixed, subbipartite, oblong-obovate, muticous or with basal spurs, brown; thecae 1.0-1.5 x 0.2 mm, oblong, finely aculeate-edged, spurs when present semi-decurrent, 0.2 mm long, slender, pendulous to spreading, brown; pore 1/4-1/3 as long as theca; pollen in monads. Ovary [1]2[-4]-locular, ovoid, subacute, glabrous, with distinct basal nectaries; ovules 1[2] per locule, pendulous, placenta apical; style exserted, just longer than the corolla, glabrous; stigma simple truncate to subcapitate. Fruit indehiscent, asymmetrically ellipsoid (depending on fertility); pericarp very thin, semi-transparent, crystals present; seeds ellipsoid, testa very thin, cells elongate with jigsawed anticlinal walls, with no pits.