Erica magnisylvae E.G.H.Oliv.

Shrub erect, slender, up to 3 m high, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: several main branches fast growing, 150-300 mm long within a year, continuing vegetative growth apically, numerous secondary branches 10-100 mm long at each node of main branch, numerous tertiary branchlets 2-5 mm long, secondary and tertiary branches ending in a florescence; all with short simple hairs and numerous plumose longer hairs ± 0.2 mm long. Leaves 3-nate, spreading, 2.0-2.7 x 0.7 mm, lanceolate, adaxially flattened, abaxially rounded and narrowly sulcate, with margins acute, ciliate towards base with simple or occasionally plumose hairs, otherwise glabrous; petiole appressed, 0.5 mm long, ciliate. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1(2) whorls, terminal on most secondary and tertiary branches; spreading to subpendulous; pedicel 1 mm long, with simple and plumose hairs, pale greenish white; bract partially recaulescent and subapproximate to calyx, 0.9 x 0.7 mm, elliptic-lanceolate, glabrous, shortly ciliate, narrowly sulcate in upper half, pale green with dark green sulcate apical portion and white lateral zones; bracteoles 2, approximate to calyx, 0.9 x 0.6 mm, elliptic, otherwise like bract. Calyx 4-partite; lobes imbricate, adpressed to calyx, 1.5 x 0.8 mm, elliptic, glabrous to shortly ciliate, sometimes also with a few small sessile non-sticky glands, colour as in bract but with larger lateral white zones. Corolla 4-lobed, 1.6 x 1.6 mm, ovoid to ovoid-urceolate, with zone between calyx segments bulging outwards, glabrous, smooth, white; lobes 0.8 x 0.9 mm, broadly triangular, obtuse, entire, bent inwards towards style with slightly recurved margins and elongate-ovate gap between lobes. Stamens 8, free, included; filaments 0.4 mm long, rectangular, erect, straight, with or without minute lateral spurs below anther, white basally and brown apically; anthers bilobed, elliptic, erect, brown, muticous [but see filament]; thecae appressed, 0.6 x 0.4 mm, narrowly elliptic, glabrous; pore 1/2 length of theca; pollen in tetrads. Ovary 4-locular, 0.5 x 0.7 mm, ovoid, slightly emarginate, glabrous or with a few simple apical hairs, green; nectaries absent; ovules 4-7 per locule, pendulous to spreading from placenta covering most of columella; style 0.6 mm long, cylindric, erect, straight, glabrous, white; stigma peltate-cyathiform, manifest or just above corolla lobes, greenish white sometimes with pinkish tinge, with 4 central reddish stigmatic knobs. Fruit a dehiscent capsule, ± 2.8 x 3.8 mm, cyathiform, valves splitting for 2/3 their length, septa with 50% portion on valve thick and other 50% portion on columella thin, placenta flattened and indistinct with only seed attachment points visible; seeds 0.5 x 0.4 mm, ovoid to ellipsoid, slightly reticulate, shiny, yellow-brown, testa thin with cells slightly sunken, ± 20-25 x 15 µm, slightly longer than broad with straight, slightly thickened anticlinal walls and numerous small pits.