Erica viridiflora Andrews

Erect, much branched shrub up to 90 cm (3 ft) or so. Branches pubescent, glabrescent. Leaves 3-nate, 3-8 mm long, closely 'set, spreading, oval, obtuse, sulcate, thick, viscidulous, the younger ciliate. Flowers terminal 3-nate, cernuous; peduncles 3-5 mm long, densely pubigerous; bracts 4 mm long, closely imbricating the calyx, broad-ovate to orbicular, concave, strongly keel-tipped, scarious, glabrous, ciliate, green with, often, reddish-brown patches of variable size which are very conspicuous in the flowering plant. Sepals 8-10 mm long, closely clasping the corolla, very imbricate, the outer usually longer than the inner, ovate, keel-tipped and more or less keeled, otherwise like the bracts. Corolla 2-8 cm long, tubular, somewhat restricted below by the calyx, glabrous, very viscid, green and unlike the bracts and sepals, turning brown all over after maturity; lobes slightly spreading, oblong, obtuse, 5 mm long. Filaments 0.4 mm wide, broadening above at the darker-coloured connective; anthers manifest to exserted, 4 mm long, sublateral, oblong, bipartite and divaricate, dark-coloured, appendiculate; pore about 3/4 the length of the cell; awns about 1 mm long, broad at the base then turning sharply downwards and narrowing to a sharp out-curved point, more rarely absent. Ovary ovoid, glabrous; style exserted; stigma simple.