Erica serrata Thunb.

Compact erect woody shrub to 1.2 m tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: numerous erect main branches terminating in an inflorescence or occasionally continuing vegetative growth, with numerous flowering secondary branches 1-5 mm long, all puberulous with scattered stouter stalked glands later becoming stellate or plumose, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, semi-erect to incurved, imbricate, 2.5-3.5 x 0.5-0.9 mm, oblong to lanceolate to elliptic, adaxially flattened, abaxially slightly rounded and narrowly sulcate, apex acute, margins acute, glabrous occasionally sparsely pubescent, young leaves edged with large sessile glands and sparse short hairs, older leaves without glands often irregularly denticulate; petiole adpressed, 0.4-0.8 mm long, puberulous or glabrous, ciliolate. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1[2] whorls, when 2-whorled then umbel-like, terminal on main branches and secondary branchlets; pedicel 0.2-0.4 mm long, glabrous or puberulous; bract fully recaulescent as abaxial sepal; bracteoles 2, fully recaulescent as lateral sepals. Calyx 4-lobed, unequally so, ±1.3 x 1.5 mm, cyathiform, often assymmetrically so, often deeply furrowed towards base between the lobes, thick and leathery, glabrous or puberulous, large abaxial lobe as long as corolla-tube or longer, about 1/2 length of calyx, incurved, ovate with foliar acute upper half, other 3 lobes shorter than corolla tube, broadly deltoid acute, incurved, 1/3 length of calyx, fully narrowly sulcate, all lobes edged with non-sticky or sticky dark red to black sessile glands and a few short hairs. Corolla 4-lobed, ±1.5 x 1.1 mm, narrowly cyathiform, adnate to the lower 1/3 of the ovary, glabrous or puberulous in upper half, colliculate, greenish white; lobes c. 1/5-1/4 length of corolla, erect to incurved, broadly rounded-deltoid, acute, erose often with a few short hairs as well. Stamens 8, included; filaments completely fused into a tube, adnate to corolla and ovary in lower 1/3, thin and semitransparent, straight, glabrous; anthers bilobed, sometimes adhering laterally, dorsally attached for about lower 1/3, oblong, muticous; thecae parallel, erect, 0.8 mm long, elliptic, smooth, with a few hairs or papillae at apex and between thecae; pore 1/4 length of theca; pollen in tetrads. Ovary 2-locular, 0.8 x 0.5 mm, pear-shaped with apical beak, lower 1/3-1/2 fused to corolla and staminal tube, glabrous with scattered apical hairs or hairs in rows down to 1/2 way, nectaries absent; ovules 2(3) per locule, pendulous from placenta 1/3 down the columella; style very short, 0.1 mm long, indistinct, puberulous; stigma very broadly funnel-shaped to cyathiform, manifest, puberulous beneath, red. Fruit partially dehiscent, splitting along sutures into 4 partially separating valves, remaining protected by hard calyx, 1.7 x 1.0 mm, ovoid tapering at both ends; pericarp thinnish but tough, mesocarp thin with numerous crystals, endocarp thin tough lignified; seeds thin opaque, testa very thin, opaque, cells thin-walled, slightly elongate, undulate to jigsawed with large pits. Flowering time: most summer months depending on the locality.