Erica toringbergensis H.A.Baker

Erect, robust shrub from a, possibly, fire-resistant rootstock, about 1.3 m high. Branches and branchlets numerous, erect-spreading, tomentose, the older scarred by the persistent leaf cushions, eventually glabrous. Leaves irregular, 3-nate to 6-nate, 3-3.5 mm long with petiole 1.5-2 mm long, incurved imbricate, linear to narrow-ovate or oblong, acute, sulcate, glabrous, the younger having short caducous setae on the margins, very crowded. Flowers terminal sometimes appearing axillary on very short branchlets, 3-nate to umbellate and very crowded, corolline; peduncles 10 mm long, glabrous, dark red; bracts three, median, lanceolate, 2 mm long. Sepals 4 mm long, ovate-acuminate, keeled, somewhat spreading, imbricate, glabrous, scarious, coloured as the corolla. Corolla 8 mm long tubular-inflated, dry, glabrous, pale to deep rose-pink; lobes 2 mm long, spreading, ovate, concolorous but turning brown. Filaments filiform; anthers included, lateral, oblong-obtuse, 1 mm long, smooth, light brown, appendiculate, pore c 1/3 length of the cell; crests pendent with a broad, lacerate base terminated by a long awn-like basal appendage somewhat longer than the basal crest; the whole equal to or slightly longer than the cell, white. Ovary oblong, long stipitate, glabrous, the stipe 2 mm long; style included; stigma capitellate. Flowering season mid-summer and autumn.