Erica zeyheriana (Klotzsch) E.G.H.Oliv.

Erect shrublet up to 1 m tall, single-stemmed reseeder. Branches: numerous erect main branches with numerous short flowering lateral branchlets 2-10 mm long, puberulous, hairs spreading and with a few scattered short glands admixed, no infrafoliar ridges. Leaves 3-nate, erect, imbricate or as long as internodes, 1.5-3.0 x 0.4 mm, narrow-elliptic to oblong, apex acute or obtuse, adaxial surface flat, abaxial surface rounded to triangular and narrow-sulcate, margins acute-angular, glabrous, with (or without) sessile glands on margins; petiole adpressed, 0.3-0.6 mm long, glabrous, often gland-ciliate. Inflorescence: flowers 3-nate in 1-5 whorls, terminal on main branches and short lateral branchlets, on main branches often the lower 1-2 whorls racemose with distinct internodes and upper whorls umbel-like, lateral inflorescences usually only 1-whorled and these often reduced to 1-2 flowers; pedicel 0.3-0.6 mm long, glabrous or puberulous; bract totally recaulescent as the abaxial lobe of calyx; bracteoles 2, totally recaulescent as the lateral lobes of calyx. Calyx 4-lobed, occasionally 4-partite, unequal, with only one sepal present, fused at base for 1/4 the length of calyx; large abaxial lobe basally imbricate, leaf-like, equal to 1/3 the length of corolla, 0.7-2.0 mm long, oblong for 2/3 its length from a broad base 0.2-0.5 mm wide, narrowly sulcate for 2/3 its length; the shorter lateral and adaxial lobes 0.4-0.6 mm long, oblong to narrowly triangular, subnarrowly sulcate for V3 of their length, greenish to white, becoming thin membraneous with adaxial lobe sometimes more reduced; all lobes glabrous often puberulous at base, ciliolate. Corolla 4-lobed 1.5-2.5 x 0.7 mm, tubular to narrowly ovoid to urceolate, glabrous or hirsute, smooth to shallowly colliculate, dirty pale yellow to brown; lobes erect, 0.2 x 0.4 mm, broadly rounded, erase. Stamens 4, free, exserted but often because of weak filaments just manifest or included; filaments as long as corolla or slightly longer, linear, weak, straight or slightly bent apically, glabrous; anthers dorsifixed 1/4 above base, broadly oblong, muticous, dark brown; thecae erect, adpressed, 0.5-1.0 x 0.2 mm, oblong, acute, slightly aculeate on edges; pore very small, 1/7 the length of theca; pollen in monads. Ovary 2(3)-locular, 0.5 x 0.6 mm, transversely obovate, slightly flattened, apex very obtuse, glabrous; ovules 1 per locule, pendulous, placenta apical; style exserted up to 2x the length of the corolla, terete, glabrous; stigma broadly cyathiform to peltate with 2 well-developed apical stigmatic processes. Fruit indehiscent, enlarging to 2x the size of the ovary and often splitting the corolla; pericarp very thin, papery, semi-membraneous; seeds ellipsoid, dark brown, testa thick and sclerified, reticulate, cells hexagonal, with thick straight anticlinal walls, with many pits. Flowering time: January to December depending on the locality.