Erica jonasiana E.G.H.Oliv.

Low prostrate, spreading shrublet with a few erect lateral branches up to 250 mm tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: a few long main branches with longer internodes up to 20 mm long, numerous secondary branches 10-30[-50] mm long sometimes terminating in an inflorescence with numerous very short tertiary branchlets 0.5-2.0 mm long terminating in inflorescences, all pubescent with no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, 3.0-7.0 x 0.8 mm, oblong, cuspidate, rounded abaxially, flattened adaxially, narrowly sulcate, apically strigose otherwise glabrous, the younger ciliate with small glands and a few short hairs all shed when older; petiole 0.7 mm long, adpressed, ciliate, reddish. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 2 whorls, umbel-like, terminal on main branches or short lateral branchlets aggregated at ends of main branches or around lower nodes; pedicel 0.8 mm long with a few short hairs and glands; bract partially recaulescent, in basal position, 1.0 x 0.1 mm, lanceolate-acuminate, bracteose, glabrous, ciliolate, pink; bracteoles 2 opposite, in basal to middle position, like bract but half the size. Calyx 4-lobed almost free, 1.3 mm long, green to pinkish; lobes adpressed to corolla tube, 0.4 mm wide, lanceolate, apex as in leaf, ciliate with short hairs and small glands otherwise glabrous, sulcus half the length of lobe, with distinct white line running down from sulcus to base of lobe. Corolla 4-lobed, 3.5 x 2.0 mm, urceolate, glabrous, colliculate, pink, tube 8-obtuse-angled with darker coloured invaginations, outer cell layer separating from inner to form angles; lobes erect, broadly rounded, fimbriate. Stamens 4, free, manifest; filaments elongate-oblong, 2.0 x 0.2 mm, subsigmoid apically, pilose with 0.3 mm long soft hairs; anthers bilobed, oblong, dorsally attached near base, muticous, dark brown, thecae erect, oblong, 1.0 x 0.5 mm, papillate, pore 1/2 length of theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 1-locular, 0.7 x 1.0 mm, asymmetrically depressed ellipsoid, laterally flattened, obtuse, colliculate, pubescent, with dehiscence line clearly visible down larger side, with reduced nectaries at base; ovule 1, pendulous, placenta apical; style 1.5 times as long as corolla, arising from side of ovary, flexed at base, with a few hairs at base; stigma subcapitate. Fruit partially dehiscent along suture on larger side, 2 x 3 mm, red; pericarp thin with valves not thickened, brittle, mesocarp forming main thickness, endocarp very reduced and thin, crystals present; seed ellipsoid, yellow, testa thin ± smooth, cells elongate, with undulate to irregularly jigsawed anticlinal walls, with small pits.