Erica rosacea (L.Guthrie) E.G.H.Oliv.

Dense shrub, low and semi-spreading to 300 mm tall or erect up to 1 m single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: numerous erect main branches with many short flowering secondary branchlets 1-10 mm long, puberulous with reflexed hairs, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, erect, imbricate or as long as internodes, 3.0-4.0 x 0.8 mm, oblong to lanceolate, adaxially flat, abaxially rounded, acute-angular, glabrous, the margins with occasional small sessile glands, apex subacute, narrowly sulcate; petiole adpressed, 0.5 mm long, sparsely and shortly ciliate with sessile glands intermixed. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1-3 whorls, the upper 2 whorls umbel-like and the lowest racemose, terminal on main branches and secondary branchlets, occasionally the main branch continuing growth; pedicel 0.5-0.8 mm long, puberulous, red; bract partially recaulescent, variable from leaf-like and basal in position to mostly bracteose and subapproximate to calyx, 0.5-1.0 x 0.2 mm, red to pink, glabrous, shortly ciliate and with some sessile glands intermixed, narrowly sulcate apically; bracteoles 2, approximate, 0.5 x 0.2 mm, otherwise like bract. Calyx 4-partite or fused very slightly at base, lobes laterally imbricate, 1.0-1.5 x 0.5-0.7 mm, elliptic to ovate to lanceolate, acute, narrowly sulcate 1/4-1/5 their length, glabrous, shortly ciliate, with a few sessile glands intermixed, red to slightly green, sometimes membraneous. Corolla 4-lobed, 2.0-4.0 x 1.5 mm, mostly tubular, ellipsoid to ovoid occasionally campanulate or cyathiform, deep to light pink becoming papery and white when old, smooth occasionally slightly colliculate; lobes erect, 0.2-0.4 mm, mostly broadly rounded, rarely subacute. Stamens 4, free, mostly exserted to manifest, rarely included; filaments as long as corolla, linear, straight, glabrous, white; anthers subbasifixed, narrowly elliptic to oblong becoming parted but not divergent, dark reddish brown, spurred or rarely muticous; thecae 1.0 x 0.2 mm, oblong, very slightly falcate, aculeate; spurs 0.1-0.2 mm long, somewhat triangular with or without a few large teeth, decurrent along apex of filament rarely free, pendulous to spreading; pore 1/4 length of theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 4[3 or 2]-locular, 0.6 x 0.6 mm, ellipsoid to globose, rounded at apex, slightly 4-lobed, glabrous or puberulous, basal nectaries well developed; ovules 1 per locule, pendulous, placenta apical; style exserted, 1.5x as long as corolla, terete, glabrous; stigma simple truncate. Fruit indehiscent, about 2x the size of ovary, globose; pericarp hard, splitting along sutures under pressure, exocarp thin, mesocarp thin red, endocarp hard lignified, several layers thick, no cystals; seeds ellipsoid, testa thin yellow, cells slightly elongate, with straight to undulate anticlinal walls, with small pits.