Erica saptouensis E.G.H.Oliv.

Erect shrublets to 0.3 m tall. Branches with numerous side branches, without infrafoliar ridges, pilose when young; bark grey, shriveling and flaking irregularly when old. Leaves 3-nate, erect-incurved, imbricate, 3.5 x 1 mm, oblong, edges rounded, obtuse to subacute, sulcate, pilose; petiole c. 0.7 mm long, appressed, ciliolate. Inflorescence of 3-6 flowers in terminal pseudoumbels on main shoots and many of 3 flowers on 3 mm long or shorter lateral shoots; pedicel ca. 3.5 mm long, puberulous; pherophyll half-recaulescent, 1.2 x 0.3 mm, apically sulcate, apically pilose, long ciliate, reddish; bracteoles like pherophyll but smaller and slightly more approximate. Calyx 4-lobed, obconical, 2 x 2 mm, fused for half its length, pilose and long ciliate, reddish, with small subapical sulca. Corolla 4-lobed, cyathiform, subquadrangular, 2.5 x 2.5 mm, smooth, pink to red, lobes 1/2 length of corolla, rounded, entire, erect. Stamens 8, manifest, free; filaments ca. 1.8 mm long, linear, straight, glabrous; anthers ca. 1 mm long, oblong-elliptic in outline, dorsally attached, papillate at apex, muticous, dark red; pore 2/3 length of theca; pollen in tetrads. Ovary 4-locular, 1.0 x 1 mm, obovoid, obtuse, pilose on upper half glabrous below, no nectaries; placenta in upper half of locule; ovules 10 per locule, pendulous; style ca. 5 mm long, well exserted, dark red; stigma capitate with four apical stigmatic bumps, dark red. Capsule cyathiform, septa joined ca. 25 % to central axis at base; seeds not seen.