Erica perplexa E.G.H.Oliv.

Erect shrub up to 1.5 m tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: a few thick erect main branches with terminal vegetative growth and numerous weak secondary semi-erect flowering branches up to 70 mm long and tertiary flowering branches 1-10 mm long erect or reflexed, all densely clothed with short to long stout spreading plumose hairs up to 0.8 mm long and sparse much shorter stout simple hairs, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, erect imbricate to semi-spreading, 1.5-2.3 x 0.4 mm, oblong to lanceolate, apex acute, adaxially flattened, abaxially semi-rounded and narrowly sulcate, edges acute, glabrous, often with a tuft of long hairs at apex, edges with short simple or substellate hairs; petiole adpressed, 0.25 mm long, glabrous, ciliolate. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1 whorl, occasionally reduced to 1 or 2 flowers only, terminal on secondary and tertiary branchlets; pedicel 0.3-0.4 mm long, glabrous, green; bract fully recaulescent as the abaxial sepal, occasionally partially recaulescent; bracteoles 2 fully recaulescent as the lateral sepals. Calyx 4-lobed almost to the base, unequal, 0.7-1.1 x 0.4-0.5 mm, the longer abaxial lobe less fused than others, lanceolate, with a foliar sulcate upper half, glabrous, ciliate mainly in lower half and with an apical tuft of 2-4 long hairs, other lobes obovate with thin white margins, broadly sulcate in the upper 1/3-1/5, glabrous, ciliate in upper half. Corolla 4-lobed, 1.2 x 1.2 mm, cyathiform to obovoid, semi-transparent, thin, white, smooth; lobes 1/2 of the corolla, erect to slightly incurved, broadly rounded, erose. Stamens 8(7), included; filaments free or slightly joined at the base, 0.3-0.4 mm long, oblong, crinkled, geniculate below the anther, becoming straight in fruit, glabrous; anthers slightly adhering laterally, dorsally attached near the base, obovate, muticous, dark brown; thecae erect, Parallel, 0.7 x 0.3 mm, elliptic, papillate-strigose on edges, otherwise glabrous; pore 1/4 the length of theca; pollen in tetrads. Ovary [1]2 or 3[4]-locular, 0.5 x 0.4 mm, ovoid, lobed according to the number of locules, glabrous, colliculate, no nectaries present; ovule 1[2] per locule, pendulous, placenta apical; style very short to nearly absent, 0.1 mm long, glabrous; stigma included to manifest, 0.5 x 1.2 mm, broadly cyathiform-funnelshaped, white. Fruit indehiscent, ±2x the ovary; pericarp thin fragile brittle, colliculate, mesocarp thin with crystals, endocarp extremely thin; seed elliptic, slightly flattened with a small beak at the micropylar end, smooth, shiny, dark brown; the testa semi-hard, cells subelongate to elongate, radial walls jigsawed to unevenly subundulate, inner tangential walls thickened and finely pitted.