Erica xeranthemifolia Salisb.

Small compact to semi-spreading shrublets up to 250 mm tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: a few main branches with many secondary lateral branchlets 3-30 mm long, pubescent with spreading hairs, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, erect, imbricate, 1.5-3.0 x 0.5-1.0 mm, ovate to oblong, obtuse, flat and glabrous adaxially, rounded and glabrous or sparsely pubescent abaxially, acute-angular, narrowly sulcate, densely lanate-ciliate, sometimes with a few sessile glands intermixed; petiole adpressed, 0.5 mm long, glabrous, long ciliate. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1(2) whorls, terminal on main and secondary branchlets; pedicel 0.5-1.0 mm long, pilose; bract partially recaulescent, approximate to calyx, 3-0 x 0.7 mm, oblong to oblanceolate, narrowly sulcate 1/3-1/2 its length, sometimes subleaf-like, otherwise bracteose, glabrous to puberulous, densely ciliate with stiff white hairs; bracteoles 2, same as bract but 1/2-1/3 the size. Calyx 4-partite, segments spreading when fresh but adhering to corolla when pressed, 2.5-3.0 x 1.0-1.5 mm, ovate to oblong-ovate, subacute, broadly sulcate 1/4 apically, sparsely pilose, adaxially covered with large sessile sticky glands, densely lanate-ciliate with white hairs. Corolla 4-lobed, 5.0 x 3.0 mm, ovoid to elongate ovoid, smooth, white or pinkish, viscid; lobes erect 0.3 mm long, broadly rounded, fimbriolate. Stamens (5)6(7), free, exserted, erect to spreading to reflexed; filaments 3.5 mm long, nearly 2x as long as corolla, elongate linear, glabrous; anthers dorsifixed near the base, 2.5 mm long, elongate oblong, muticous, yellow brown; thecae 2.5 x 0.5 mm, oblong slightly falcate apically, glabrous, aculeate apically and sparsely so along edges; pore almost as long as theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 2-locular, 0.8 x 0.8 mm, ovoid, obtuse, glabrous, with distinct basal nectaries; ovules 1 per locule, pendulous, placenta apical; style exserted, up to 2x as long as corolla, glabrous; stigma simple truncate or very slightly expanded. Fruit indehiscent, ellipsoid, glabrous; pericarp thin papery brown, with many crystals; seeds ellipsoid, testa very thin, cells elongate with undulate anticlinal walls, with some medium-sized pits present.