Erica rugata E.G.H.Oliv.

Erect shrub up to 1.5 m tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: numerous, erect, somewhat flexuous main branches terminating in an inflorescence with many secondary flowering branches 1-10 mm long, all sparsely to densely puberulous with a few substellate hairs, occasionally with a few shortly stalked glands as well, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, erect to slightly recurved, imbricate or as long as internodes, 3.0-5.0 x 0.5 mm, oblong, elliptic to narrowly ovate, adaxially flattened, abaxially rounded and narrowly sulcate, apex subacute, edges acute, glabrous, sometimes sparsely ciliolate or with small sessile glands; petiole adpressed, 0.4-0.9 mm, glabrous, ciliolate and with a few sessile glands. Inflorescence: flowers (1-)3-nate in 1(2) whorls, when 2-whorled then umbel-like, terminal on main branches and secondary branchlets; pedicel 0.2-0.6 mm long, glabrous; bract fully recaulescent as abaxial lobe of calyx; bracteoles 2, fully recaulescent as lateral lobes of calyx. Calyx unequally 4-lobed, campanulate, ±1/2 to almost equal the length of corolla, glabrous, green, all lobes laterally imbricate; abaxial larger lobe 0.6-2.5 mm long, from as long as corolla tube to far exceeding the stigma, with a narrow, pointed, sulcate apex from a broad base, other 3 lobes 0.5 x 0.6 mm, broadly deltoid, about 1/2 as long as calyx, narrowly sulcate for 1/2 their length, ciliolate to subfimbriate sometimes also with subsessile glands. Corolla. 4-lobed, 1.0-1.5 x 1.5 mm, cyathiform to globose, glabrous, smooth, dirty cream; lobes erect to incurved, 1/4-1/3 as long as corolla, broad, subacute to truncate, erose. Stamens (7)8[9], manifest; filaments fully fused into a semitransparent glabrous straight tube 0.3 mm long; anthers bilobed, dorsifixed near base, free or slightly adnate at base, oblong-elliptic, muticous; thecae erect, adpressed, 0.7-1.1 mm long, oblong-elliptic, glabrous, smooth, apically occasionally papillate; pore 1/3-1/2 as long as theca; pollen in tetrads. Ovary 2-locular, 0.5 x 0.5 mm, globose, apex broadly obtuse to slightly emarginate, glabrous, with deep longitudinal and shallower horizontal grooves, nectaries absent; ovules 2[1] per locule, pendulous, placenta apical; style obconic, merging into the enlarged stigma, shorter than the ovary, glabrous; stigma manifest to exserted, 0.8-0.9 mm broad, cyathiform-funnelshaped, with erect margins, glabrous, red. Fruit indehiscent, 1.8 x 1.8 mm, globose to slightly oblate, usually with 4 narrow, longitudinal grooves and varying random reticulations; pericarp leathery, mesocarp thickest layer but soft and with crystals, endocarp apparently 1-layered, slightly lignified; seeds with thinnish testa, the cells elongate with slightly lignified undulate to semijigsawed radial walls, walls finely pitted. Flowering time: September to February in the Faure area, March to June in the Bredasdorp area.