Erica subcapitata (N.E.Br.) E.G.H.Oliv.

Erect densely branched woody shrub to 1 m tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: many erect main branches either terminating in an inflorescence or continuing vegetative growth, with numerous secondary and tertiary flowering branchlets 1-20 mm long, all puberulous with simple spreading hairs and many semiviscid sessile glands, the older with stouter stellate hairs, all with slight infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, erect, imbricate, 3.0-4.5 x 0.7 mm, oblong to narrowly ellipsoid to ovate, apex acute, adaxially flat, abaxially rounded and narrowly sulcate, edges acute, glabrous, ciliolate with hairs and small sessile glands; petiole adpressed, 0.4 mm long, glabrous, ciliolate and with sessile marginal glands. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1 or 2(3) whorls, when 2-or 3-whorled then umbel-like, terminal on main branches or secondary or tertiary branchlets; pedicel 0.2 mm long, glabrous; bract fully recaulescent as abaxial lobe of calyx; bracteoles 2, fully recaulescent as lateral lobes of calyx. Calyx unequally 4-lobed, sometimes markedly so, with only 1 sepal (the abaxial lobe), subcampanulate, glabrous, green; larger abaxial lobe 1.2-1.7 mm long, up to 2x as long as other lobes, slightly more free than others often almost free, often as long as corolla, the upper half narrowly deltoid and sulcate from a broad base, other 3 lobes about 2/3 lobed, 1/2 as long as the corolla, 0.5-0.8 mm long, narrowly ovate to elliptic, apex acute, narrowly sulcate for 1/2 their length, all edged with a few short hairs, mostly at base, and with sessile glands. Corolla 4-lobed, 1.2-1.5 x 1.3 mm, globose to urceolate, glabrous, smooth, greenish cream; lobes ±1/4 length of corolla, erect to slightly incurved, broad with subacute to subtruncate apex and irregular to entire margins. Stamens (5)6-8[-11], manifest; filaments fused into a tube, 0.5 mm long, straight, thin and semitransparent, glabrous; anthers laterally fused, dorsifixed near base, obovate, bilobed, muticous; thecae erect, adpressed, 0.8-0.9 mm long, elliptic, glabrous but papillate apically; pore 73 as long as theca; pollen in tetrads. Ovary 1-or 2-locular, 0.5 x 0.5 mm, globose, apex slightly emarginate, verrucose, sometimes with distinct longitudinal grooves, nectaries absent; ovules [1]2[3] per locule, pendulous, placenta apical; style short, 0.2 mm long, glabrous; stigma manifest to slightly exserted, 1.0-1.3 mm broad, cyathiform-funnel-shaped with erect sides, glabrous, red. Fruit indehiscent, 1.5 x 1.5 mm, glabrous; pericarp hard, leathery to brittle, verrucose, mesocarp the main thickness with many crystals, endocarp very reduced and thin; seeds half spheroid and laterally adnate, testa thick and hard, verrucose, cells from subequilateral to slightly elongate with radial walls semistraight to irregularly undulate, with numerous pits. Flowering time: Most months of the year depending on the locality, but mostly in summer.