Erica ericoides flower cluster

    Erica ericoides flower cluster
    Author: Ivan Lätti
    Photographer: Thabo Maphisa

    The short-stalked Erica ericoides flowers grow close to the upper leaves in heads of six to twelve on side-branchlets or short-shoots. Clutched by short, very hairy, brown, needle-like to triangular sepals, the cylindrical to slightly bell-shaped or tubular corollas appear about hairless. There is a small, abrupt tube constriction at the mouth before the four lobes angle out, shallowly round-tipped. The corolla is from 2,5 mm to 4 mm long. Flower colour is usually pink or white, but soon brown.

    The four, thick, red-brown to blackish, exserted anthers cohere around the still longer white style that ends in a pale brown stigma resembling a cigarette tip. The anthers are halfway to about fully visible in picture, apart from one flower lacking the reproductive parts of both sexes.

    In the close-up, the stem-tip leaves appear quite hairy (Manning and Helme, 2024; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist).

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