Erica richardii E.G.H.Oliv.

Shrubs varying from very small, ± 10 x 50 mm and prostrate, to erect and divaricate, up to 250 x 300 mm, woody, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: few to many main branches (10-)20-30(-60) mm long terminating in a florescence, no secondary branches, with ± 3 new branches formed each year just below each florescence, all covered with dense short retrorse white hairs. Leaves 3-nate, erect, imbricate, linear, 3.5(-4.8) x 0.8 mm, adaxially slightly rounded, abaxially rounded, both sides with very short scattered hairs becoming glabrous, margins subacute with non-sticky glands in young stages, apex acute sometimes reddish, sulcus narrow open at base; petiole ± 0.6 mm long, glabrous, ciliate. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1 whorl at apex of main branches; pedicel ± 7 mm long, red, covered with dense short white hairs, these somewhat clustered together in stellate-like groups with few, non-sticky, very short-stalked glands; bract partially recaulescent 1/3-1/2 way up pedicel, oblong to oblanceolate, ± 2.4 x 0.8 mm, covered with short scattered hairs and few, short, non-sticky glands on margins, creamish white with reddish apex, sulcus narrow ± 1/2 as long as bract; bracteoles 2, placed a short distance above bract, otherwise like bract. Calyx 4-partite; lobes not laterally imbricate, elliptic to obovate, ± 2.5 x 1.5 mm long, flattened base, white to creamish, with semitransparent margins, with stouter cream-coloured, sometimes reddish, sulcate upper portion, sparsely and shortly hairy, margins minutely serrated with occasional short, non-sticky, gland-tipped hairs, sulcus narrow ± 1/3 length of sepal. Corolla 4-lobed, globose urceolate, ± 4.5 x 3.8 mm, covered with very short hairs, white; lobes ±1 x 1 mm, rounded entire. Stamens 8, free, included; filaments oblong broad, ± 2.0 x 0.3 mm, with distinct apical S-bend, glabrous, white; anthers bipartite, basally attached, lanceolate in adaxial view, appendiculate; thecae erect, ± 1.1 x 0.6 mm and ovate in side view, with long pale red hairs between thecae otherwise glabrous, red-brown with darker apex, appendages obovate, ± 0.4 x 0.2 mm, pink-white, edged with long white hairs; pollen as tetrads. Ovary 4-locular, globose, ± 1.8 x 2.0 mm, slightly tapered at apex, glabrous, green, soon turning purplish with well-developed dark red nectaries around base; ovules ± 20 per locule, spreading laterally from centrally placed placenta; style ± 2 mm long, manifest, becoming exserted in fruiting stage, green with purple apex, glabrous; stigma truncate. Fruit a dehiscent loculicidal capsule, ± 3.5 x 3.5 mm, very hard and woody; valves splitting halfway open but suberect and spreading very little, septa mainly on the valves very thin and papery portion on columella. Seeds asymmetrically angular-obovoid with folds and ridges, ± 0.9 x 0.6 mm, yellow occasionally tinged red, testa thickened, deeply reticulate, cells 50-75 x 40-60 µm, anticlinal walls straight abaxially, undulate adaxially, inner periclinal walls with numerous small pits.