Erica multumbellifera flowers

The small, musty-scented flowers of Erica multumbellifera grow at the tips of side-branchlets in small, drooping, umbel-shaped clusters on red peduncles only 1,5 mm long. The specific name, multumbellifera, is derived from the Latin words multus meaning many, umbella meaning umbel and fero meaning to bear or carry, referring to the numerous umbels of flowers borne in season.

The bracts below the flowers are small, the keeled sepals lanceolate. The Pachysa section of ericas produce flowers that are not tubular, usually shorter than 8 mm and without star-like lobes.

E. multumbellifera flowers are red-purple, the corolla globular to occasionally ovoid and dry, not sticky as most ericas of the Pachysa section. The sides of the corolla may be fluted. The lobes at the small flower mouth are tiny, erect and rounded. The eight anthers are included in the corolla, elliptic to triangular with toothed crests at the base. The ovary is sometimes hairy, the short style inside the corolla. The stigma resembles a pinhead, the anthers surrounding it.

Flowering happens from late spring to early winter (Manning and Helme, 2024; Manning, 2007; Mustart, et al, 1997; Baker and Oliver, 1967; Andrew, 2017; iNaturalist).