Erica multumbellifera

Erica multumbellifera, commonly known as bead heath or balloon heath and previously scientifically as E. ramentacea, is a bushy, profusely flowering, erect shrub reaching heights around 40 cm. It often forms large colonies. The brown branches are sometimes finely hairy, sometimes smooth.

In the Baker and Oliver classification of Erica species the plant forms part of the Pachysa section in which flowers appear in threes or fours at stem-tips, the urn-shaped to egg-shaped corollas sticky with anthers included. Manning and Helme groups it among the Sticky Heaths that have hairless, sticky corollas with concealed anthers and style, or the style just reaching beyond the mouth.

The narrowly linear and glabrous leaves grow in whorls of four, appressed, ascending or curving out. Leaf length is from 3 mm to 6 mm.

The species distribution is only in the southwest of the Western Cape, from the Cape Peninsula to Tulbagh in the north and Riversdale in the east.

The habitat is moist sandy flats and lower fynbos slopes. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning and Helme, 2024; Manning, 2007; Mustart, et al, 1997; Baker and Oliver, 1967; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).