Erica phaeocarpa E.G.H.Oliv.

Stout semi-prostrate to erect shrublets up to 0.5 m tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: numerous main spreading to erect branches with numerous very short secondary flowering branchlets 1-3 mm long, all puberulous and with scattered stalked glands, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, erect and imbricate to spreading, 4.0-5.0 x 0.8 mm, lanceolate to linear, apex subacute, adaxial surface flat, abaxial surface rounded narrow-sulcate, glabrous or minutely scabrid, sometimes puberulous; margins acute, ciliolate or with short-stalked glands; petiole adpressed, 0.7 mm long, glabrous, edged with sessile glands occasionally ciliolate. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1(2) whorls, when 2-whorled then umbel-like, terminal on main branches and lateral short branchlets, sometimes forming dense pseudospikes towards ends of branches; pedicel 0.2-0.3 mm long, glabrous; bract recaulescent, approximate, 0.6-0.9 x 0.3 mm, lanceolate to oblong, apex subacute to obtuse, narrow-sulcate 1/3-1/2 its length, glabrous, ciliolate and with a few sessile glands towards apex, green or red with green tip; bracteoles 2, approximate, like bract but slightly smaller. Calyx 4-lobed, 1.5 x 0.9 mm, tubular to ovoid, minutely colliculate, glabrous or sometimes puberulous, fleshy, red to green; tube with wide groove opposite the lobes and slit-like groove alternating with lobes, enlarging considerably in fruiting stage to 3 x 2 mm, broadly ellipsoid and becoming very fleshy, dark red to black; lobes 1/3-1/2(-2/3) the length of calyx, adpressed occasionally slightly spreading, often imbricate laterally, ovate to triangular, apex acute, subnarrow-sulcate 1/4-1/2 the length of lobe, groove below sulcus broadening towards tube, edged with sessile glands sometimes ciliolate. Corolla 4-lobed, 3.0-4.0 x 1.5 mm, tubular-obovoid, glabrous, colliculate to papillate, pink; lobes erect to slightly spreading, 0.6 x 0.3 mm, rounded to subacute, often erase. Stamens 4, free, exserted; filaments longer than corolla by 1 mm, linear, straight, glabrous; anthers oblong, dorsifixed near base, dark brown, spurred; thecae 1.0 x 0.2 mm, oblong, erect, aculeate-edged; spurs attached at base of thecae laterally or on apex of filament, 0.15 mm long, narrow-triangular to linear, sometimes aculeate; pore 1/3 the length of theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 2(3)-locular, 0.7 x 0.4 mm, ovoid to ellipsoid, glabrous but colliculate, with large basal nectaries; ovules 1 per locule, pendulous, placenta apical; style exserted, about 2x length of the corolla; stigma simple truncate to minutely cyathiform. Fruit indehiscent, protected by the enlarged thickened calyx, about 2x size of the ovary, sometimes asymmetrical; pericarp very thin, many crystals present; seeds ellipsoid, testa very thin, cells elongate with slightly undulate anticlinal walls with no pits. Flowering time: March to July with the conspicuous fruiting stage remaining until December.