Erica phacelanthera E.G.H.Oliv.

Erect woody shrub up to 1 m tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: a few erect main branches either continuing vegetative growth or terminating in an inflorescence with numerous subspreading or recurved flowering secondary and tertiary lateral branches 5-15 mm long, all pubescent with stout gland-tipped spreading hairs and dense shorter finer hairs, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, erect adpressed imbricate to spreading and recurved, 0.6-1.7(-2.0) x 0.4-0.9 mm, oblong to ovate to broadly elliptic, adaxially flattened, abaxially rounded and narrowly sulcate, edges acute with few to many short stalked to sessile glands or setae, occasionally also abaxially, apex obtuse to truncate with conspicuous large oblate sessile gland, other-wise glabrous; petiole adpressed, 0.2-0.5 mm long, edged with a few subsessile glands. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1-4 whorls, umbel-like or with lowest whorl having a distinct internode, terminal on main branches and secondary and tertiary branchlets; pedicel 0.1 mm long to nearly absent, glabrous; bract fully recaulescent as the abaxial lobe of calyx; bracteoles 2, fully recaulescent as the lateral lobes of calyx. Calyx 4-lobed, unequal, 0.9-1.1 x 1.1-1.5 mm long, broadly pear-shaped, with longitudinal ridges opposite the lobes; lobes mostly subequal, the abaxial occasionally much larger and as long as corolla in lowest flowers of an inflorescence, broadly acute to emarginate, otherwise oblate-ellipsoid, leaf-like from a broad base, edged with several stalked glands, with a large truncate apical gland or apiculate, fimbriate to ciliate sometimes with gland-tipped cilia; other lobes as long as the corolla tube, oblate-ellipsoid, obtuse or emarginate, mostly with a large apical sessile gland rarely without, edged apically with sessile or subsessile sticky glands and basally ciliolate, all lobes curved inwards, narrowly sulcate for 2/3 their length, glabrous with a line of hairs between angles of the tube or entirely pubescent. Corolla 4-lobed, 1.1-1.7 x 0.7-1.1 mm, pear-shaped, glabrous, dull white to cream tinged red; lobes erect to subspreading, short and broad, apex acute to obtuse, entire to erase. Stamens 4, included; filaments free, 0.4-0.6 mm long, linear, straight, glabrous; anthers bilobed, obovate-oblong, dorsally attached near base, adhering laterally in lower 1/2, adhering dorsally to corolla, muticous, glabrous, light brown; thecae ±0.5 mm long, elliptic, slightly crested apically, apically apiculate otherwise smooth; pore 1/3-1/2 the length of theca; pollen in tetrads. Ovary 1-locular, 0.8-0.9 mm long, narrowly obovoid to ellipsoid with a slender puberulous apical beak otherwise glabrous, nectaries absent; ovule 1, pendulous, placenta apical; style very short, 0.1-0.2 mm long; stigma manifest to just exserted, 0.9 mm broad, broadly cyathiform with spreading to erect margin, sparsely pubescent beneath. Fruit indehiscent, ±0.7 x 0.4 mm, broadly obovoid to ellipsoid with prominent puberulous beak, protected by thick calyx, brownish red; pericarp thinnish and brittle, mesocarp the thickest layer with many crystals, endocarp 2-layered very thin; seed ellipsoid with thin testa adhering to endocarp, cells elongate with jigsawed radial walls, with small scattered pits.