Erica melanomontana E.G.H.Oliv.

Erect compact woody shrublet up to 0.3(-0.5) m tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: numerous erect main branches continuing vegetative growth or terminating in an inflorescence with numerous flowering secondary and tertiary branches 1-10 mm long erect or slightly curved, all pubescent with recurved hairs sometimes becoming substellate, in young stages sometimes with shortly stalked glands interspersed, with no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, erect, adpressed, mostly subimbricate, 1.0-2.1 x 0.5-0.8 mm, narrowly elliptic to narrowly obovate, apex subacute to obtuse, adaxially flattened, abaxially rounded and narrowly sulcate, margins acute, glabrous to puberulous adaxially, often minutely ciliate sometimes edged with sessile glands; petiole adpressed, short, 0.2-0.3 mm long, glabrous to puberulous. Inflorescence: flowers (1-)3-nate in 1 whorl, terminal on short secondary and tertiary branchlets, occasionally on main branches; pedicel very short, 0.1-0.4 mm long, glabrous to sparsely puberulous; bract fully recaulescent as abaxial lobe of the calyx; bracteoles fully recaulescent as lateral lobes of the calyx. Calyx unequally 4-lobed, 0.6-0.8 x 1.0 mm, campanulate to broadly funnel-shaped; tube glabrous to pubescent, hirsute at base, green to yellow or reddish yellow; abaxial lobe 0.5-0.8 mm long, elongate triangular, slightly longer than others, very slightly imbricate laterally; other lobes broadly triangular, 0.2-0.4 mm long; all lobes subnarrowly sulcate for ±1/3 their length, ciliolate and with subsessile glands. Corolla 4-lobed, 1.0-1.1 x 1.3-1.5 mm, broadly obovoid, glabrous to minutely puberulous on the lobes; lobes ±1/3 as long as the corolla, broad, cucullate, obtuse or emarginate, erose to fimbriate to ciliolate. Stamens 4(5)[6], included; filaments 0.3-0.5 mm long, free to slightly joined at the base, oblong, straight, glabrous; anthers dorsally attached near the base, bilobed, cuneate, laterally connate, muticous; thecae 0.3-0.6 mm long, elliptic to obovate flat-topped, glabrous but apically papillate and sparsely hirsute; pore 1/3-1/2 of the theca; pollen in tetrads. Ovary 1-locular, 0.7-0.9 x 0.5-0.6 mm, ellipsoid with a broad beak and distinct line of separation from style, ridged in upper half, glabrous or sparsely pubescent mainly along the ridges, nectaries absent; ovule 1, pendulous, placenta apical; style extremely short and thick, 0.2 x 0.3 mm, indistinct from the stigma, glabrous; stigma included to exserted, 0.8-1.0 mm wide, at first very broadly funnel-shaped becoming broadly peltate, glabrous. Fruit indehiscent, 1.0 x 0.5 mm, pear-shaped, red; pericarp thin brittle, mesocarp thin but forming main strength of pericarp with many crystals, endocarp very thin; seed ellipsoid, testa thin adhering to pericarp, cells elongate with radial walls slightly thickened, jigsawed, with distinct pits.