Erica totta Thunb.

Prostrate spreading shrublets up to 1 m across, sometimes to 300 mm tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: few thick straight prostrate main branches with continuous vegetative growth, with numerous secondary flowering branches spreading to subspreading or erect from short up to 200 mm long, and many tertiary flowering branches 1-10 mm long; finely pubesent with or without short-stalked glandular hairs, always with thick spreading simple and plumose hairs up to 2 mm long, often only plumose at base, hairs dense or very few. Leaves 3-nate, suberect when young becoming spreading or reflexed, 2.0-3.0 x 0.7 mm, oblong to lanceolate, rounded on both sides or flattened adaxially, edges subrounded, concave adaxially, abaxially narrow-sulcate, apex acute, minutely pubescent all over appearing grey, rarely without pubescence, always with long stout hairs like those on branches on abaxial surface and the margins; petiole adpressed, pubescent or glabrous, with occasional long hairs. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1(2) whorls, when 2-whorled then umbel-like, terminal on secondary and tertiary branchlets often aggregated together into dense spike-like clusters; pedicel 0.5-1.3 mm long, glabrous or pubescent or sometimes shortly glandular pubescent; bract partially recaulescent, approximate and adpressed to calyx, 0.7-2.1 x 2.0 mm, elliptic to ovate to depressed ovate, apex acute, rarely obtuse, white, glabrous or puberulous, serrulate to fimbriate, the teeth/hairs ciliate, no glands, broadly sulcate and keel-tipped 1/5 its length; bracteoles 2, like the bract but slightly smaller. Calyx 4-partite, sometimes very slightly joined at base; segments from 1/2 to as long as corolla, 1.7-3.5 x 1.4-2.0 mm, elliptic-oblong to broadly elliptic or obovate, apex obtuse to subacute, keel-tipped or rarely not, broadly sulcate for 1/6 the segment, glabrous or puberulous, serrulate to fimbriate, the teeth/hairs often ciliate, often gland-tipped only towards the apex or the whole length, often shorter and sessile at apex. Corolla 4-lobed, 2.5-3.9 x 2.6 mm, urceolate to broadly tubular-urceolate, the narrow upper portion varying in length relative to whole, the basal portion 4-lobed, glabrous or puberulous, smooth, white; lobes erect sometimes with subspreading tips, broad, rounded, entire to erose. Stamens 8, free, included, very rarely manifest; filaments up to 1.8 mm long, linear, straight, glabrous; anthers bilobed, oblong, dorsifixed near base, muticous; thecae erect, 0.9 x 0.2 mm, oblong, smooth, rarely aculeate; pore 1/3-1/2 the theca; pollen in tetrads. Ovary 4-locular, 0.5 x 0.4 mm, ovoid to ellipsoid, slightly emarginate, 4-lobed, distinctly colliculate, glabrous to densely lanate especially at apex, with large basal nectaries; ovules 1 per locule, pendulous, placenta apical; style terete, manifest or just longer than corolla, straight, glabrous; stigma simple to slightly cyathiform. Fruit indehiscent, 1.0 x 0.8 mm, ovoid, usually asymmetrical depending on fertility; pericarp thin, somewhat hard but brittle, exocarp colliculate with thick cuticle, mesocarp thin with many crystals, endocarp thin with unlignified elongate cells; seeds ellipsoid, testa very thin, transparent with elongate cells, anticlinal walls slightly undulate, no pits present.