Erica jananthus E.G.H.Oliv. & I.M.Oliv.

Shrublet compact to loose, 20 x 30-100 x 150 mm, usually woody, single-stemmed. Branches: numerous main branches ±10 mm long, leafy with occasional leafy side branchlets 2-5 mm long; stems puberulous to sparsely strigose with some glands admixed. Leaves 3-nate, erect-spreading to patent, elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, 1.5-1.7 x 0.5-0.7 mm, rounded to flattened adaxially and rounded abaxially, sparsely puberulous on both surfaces to almost glabrous adaxially, sulcus narrow and open at base, margins rounded with yellowish to pale brown sessile glands and one apical gland, often completely glabrous when older; petiole adpressed, 0.4-0.5 mm long, edged with short hairs and subsessile to sessile glands. Inflorescence: 1-3 flowers in a single whorl at ends of leafy, short, main branches and occasional lateral branchlets, the latter sometimes aggregated at ends of main branches; pedicel ± 2.4 mm long, sparsely and shortly strigulose with longer and stouter gland-tipped hairs or sessile glands admixed; bract partially recaulescent in lower quarter of pedicel, elliptic, ± 0.9 x 0.5 mm, sparsely puberulous ciliate with yellowish to pale brown sessile glands, white sometimes tinged green; bracteoles 2 in mid position, slightly obovate, otherwise like bract. Calyx 4-partite; lobes adpressed to corolla, elliptic to broadly so, ± 1.5 x 1.0-1.2 mm, glabrous, edged with numerous sessile glands, white with narrowly sulcate green apex. Corolla 4-lobed, globose urceolate, ± 3.0 x 2.5 mm, glabrous, viscid, white; lobes broadly ovate, ± 1 x 1.5-2.0 mm, spreading to recurved, obtuse or emarginate, minutely and irregularly toothed. Stamens 8, free; filaments 1.8-2.0 x 0.2-0.3 mm, linear, curved, glabrous; anthers subexserted, bilobed appendiculate, thecae ± 0.7 x 0.3 mm and oblong in adaxial view, ± 0.8 x 0.4 mm and elliptic in lateral view, golden brown to red-brown, pore ± 1/2 length of theca, appendages decurrent on filament, ± 0.3 x 0.2 mm, narrowly to equilaterally obtrullate, pendulous, irregularly denticulate, pale brown to cream-coloured; pollen shed in tetrads. Ovary 4-locular, globose to depressed globose, 0.5-0.9 x 0.9 mm, obtuse to almost flat apically, villous, white to pale green, with well-developed, dark nectaries around base; ovules 6-8 per locule, pendulous from apical placenta; style exserted, narrowly cylindric, slightly curved, ± 3 mm long, white, glabrous; stigma simple-truncate to slightly capitellate, dark green. Fruit a dehiscent capsule ± 1.9 x 2.6 mm, valves opening full length, septa equal on valves and columella. Seeds ± ellipsoid, ± 0.7 x 0.35 mm, sometimes curved, with flattened micropilar end; testa alveolate, cells ± 100 x 16-20 µm, anticlinal walls unequally undulate and considerably thickened, periclinal walls with scattered pits.