Erica lateriflora E.G.H.Oliv.

Compact erect shrubs to 800 mm tall, sometimes semi-spreading 200-500 mm tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: numerous erect main branches with continuous terminal growth and numerous very short flowering secondary branches 1-2 mm long, puberulous with white recurved hairs, sometimes with infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate; the main vegetative leaves erect and closely imbricate to spreading, 3.0-4.0 x 1.5 mm, ovate to elliptic, adaxially flattened, abaxially rounded and narrowly sulcate, edges subacute, pubescent with recurved hairs on both surfaces, margin with stout plumose hairs 0.5 mm long and apex with spinous plumose hair 1 mm long, grey-green, the older leaves dark olive-green occasionally glabrescent; petiole ca. 1 mm long, pubescent; leaves on very short flowering branchlets much reduced, bracteose and like the bracteoles. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1 whorl terminal on very short secondary branchlets all crowded together in a secund spike-like synflorescence 20-30 mm long towards ends of main branches; pedicel 0.5 mm long, glabrous; bract partially recaulescent, from remote to middle position and often adpressed to calyx, 1.0 x 0.8 mm, ovate to lanceolate with a small open apical sulcus, glabrous to pubescent, ciliate, the cilia simple or plumose, occasionally gland-tipped, apex often with a plumose seta, white with apex darker and green; bracteoles 2, often slightly longer than bract, 1.3 x 0.6 mm otherwise like bract. Calyx 4-lobed, 2.1 x 1.7 mm, campanulate, 1/3-1/2 length of corolla, white to pale yellow-green, glabrous to pubescent; lobes unequal in width, the ad-and abaxial outer ones broader than laterals and imbricate, 1.0-1.7 mm wide, broadly ovate to obovate slightly cucullate, 2/3-3/4 as long as calyx, narrowly sulcate 1/3 length of lobe, edges ciliate with simple or plumose or gland-tipped hairs, apex with long plumose seta. Corolla 4-lobed, 3.5-4.5 x 1.3-1.6 mm, tubular campanulate, inflated in region 1/3-1/2 from base, puberulous in middle region, white; lobes erect to slightly spreading, 1/6-1/4 length of corolla, broad, obtuse, margin erose. Stamens 4, free, included; filament linear, with slight sigmoid bend below anther, glabrous; anthers oblong, 1 mm long, subbipartite, dorsifixed near base, yellow-brown, spurred; thecae erect, free, 1 mm long, oblong, finely aculeate; appendages borne laterally near base of thecae, pendulous, 1/3 as long as thecae, linear distinctly aculeate; pore 1/3-1/2 the theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 1[2]-locular, 0.7 x 0.6 mm, asymmetrically ovoid, glabrous, smooth, green, with distinct basal nectaries; ovule 1, pendulous, placenta apical; style exserted to 1.5 x length of corolla, eccentrically arising from ovary, straight to slightly curved; stigma simple-truncate to very minutely cyathiform. Fruit indehiscent, ellipsoid-ovoid, smooth and shiny; pericarp thin but tough, mesocarp thickish, several layered with crystals, endocarp very thin just visible, seeds ellipsoid, testa thin, cells elongate with irregularly undulate-jigsawed anticlinal walls, with no pits.