Erica quadrifida (Benth.) E.G.H.Oliv.

Soft erect shrubs 0.3-0.7 mm tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: numerous erect main branches with numerous very short lateral flowering branchlets 1-10 mm long, puberulous with spreading hairs, becoming substellate on older branches, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, erect, mostly as long as internodes, 3.0-6.0 x 0.8 mm, oblong-lanceolate, apices subacute, adaxial surface flat, abaxial surface rounded and narrowly sulcate, apex subacute, margins acute, mostly glabrous but in young leaves often with minute scattered sessile glands and a few hairs at apex; petiole adpressed, 0.8 mm long, glabrous with sessile glands on margins. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1(-4) whorls, upper whorls umbel-like the lower racemose, terminal, mostly on very short lateral branchlets, these crowded into pseudospikes, main branches mostly without a terminal inflorescence and continuing growth; pedicel 0.5 mm long, pubescent, red; bract partially recaulescent, subapproximate to calyx, varying in length mostly as long as bracteoles, 0.5-0.9 x 0.3 mm, lanceolate, with subnarrow apical sulcus 1/6 the length of bract, basally sparsely puberulous otherwise glabrous, ciliate with a few short hairs and short-stalked glands, bracteose, light pink or greenish; bracteoles 2, approximate, 0.5-0.2 mm long, oblong-triangular, otherwise similar to bract. Calyx 4-lobed, 1 x 1 mm, obconical, glabrous, whitish to pinkish red, thin; lobes 2/3 the length of calyx, triangular to lanceolate, apex subacute, with subnarrow sulcus 1/2 the length of lobe, edged with short hairs and minute sessile glands. Coroi 4-lobed, 3.0 x 1.2 mm, ovoid to tubular, glabrous, smooth to minutely colliculate, pinkish white; lobes erect, 0.3 x 0.5 mm, rounded, entire. Stamens 4, free, manifest to exserted; filaments as long as or just longer than the corolla, linear, straight or slightly subsigmoid apically, glabrous; anthers dorsally fixed near the base, bipartite, oblong, subdivergent in upper half, dark brown, spurred; thecae 0.8-1.2 x 0.2-0.3 mm, narrow-lanceolate to oblong, aculeate; spurs arising from apex of filament, up to 0.3 mm long, irregularly acute-oblong, pendulous, variously denticulate; pore 1/4 the length of theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 4-locular, 0.5 x 0.4 mm, ellipsoid, often with 4 obtuse angles, apex acute, puberulous, with well-developed basal nectaries; ovules 1 per locule, pendulous, placenta apical; style exserted, 1.5-2x length of corolla, terete, glabrous; stigma small cyathiform. Fruit indehiscent, globose but mostly asymmetrical depending on number of fertile seeds; pericarp very thin and papery, a few crystals present; seeds ellipsoid, testa thick lignified, alveolate, cells subequally and irregularly polygonal, with ± straight thickened anticlinal walls, with numerous small pits. Flowering time: June to September, occasionally later, but often in fruit to December.