Erica viscosissima E.G.H.Oliv.

Erect compact shrublet 0.3-0.5 [-0.9] m tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: many erect main branches with many secondary recurving flowering branchlets 2-20 mm long, canescent, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, erect to sub-spreading, as long as internodes, 2 x 1 mm, elliptic, obtuse, adaxially slightly rounded, abaxially rounded, margin indistinct, narrowly sulcate, glabrous, with occasional small glands or hairs laterally; petiole adpressed, 0.5 mm long, glabrous, shortly ciliate. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1-4 whorls as an umbel-like agglutinated head, terminal on main and secondary branches; bract partially recaulescent, approximate and adpressed to calyx, 2 x 1 mm, ovate tapering towards foliaceous apex, narrowly sulcate for 2/3 its length, glabrous, ciliate with shaggy hairs, rarely edged with sessile glands, laterally imbricating the bracteoles, green; bracteoles 2, approximate and adpressed to calyx, 1.8 x 0.8 mm, ovate to elliptic, leaf-like, long sulcate, glabrous, ciliate, greenish red. Calyx 4-lobed, hidden by bract and bracteoles, 0.7 x 1.2 mm, cyathiform, puberulous, green; lobes 1/2 the length of calyx, deltoid acute, broadly sulcate for 0.2 mm apically, covered with sessile glands adaxially. Corolla 4-lobed, 3.5 x 1.5 mm, tubular ovoid, smooth, viscid, pink; lobes broadly deltoid, subacute, erose, slightly spreading. Stamens 4, free, exserted; filaments linear, slightly expanded apically, often flexing outwards, glabrous; anthers basifixed, spurless, oblong, dark brown; thecae 1.4 x 0.2 mm, oblong, semi-divergent when mature, aculeate; pore 1/3-1/2 the length of theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 1-locular, 0.8 x 0.4 mm, ovoid, asymmetrical, subacute, apically pilose, with large nectaries around base; ovule 1, pendulous from apical placenta; style exserted, 5 mm long, often recurved, glabrous; stigma simple truncate. Fruit indehiscent, about 1.6 mm long, asymmetrically ellipsoid; pericarp very slightly thickened and brittle, with many crystals, exocarp slightly lignified, endocarp very thin; seeds ellipsoid, testa thin, cells elongate with jigsawed anticlinal walls and large pits becoming slits.