Erica imbricata

Erica imbricata, commonly salt-and-pepper heath and in Afrikaans rinkals heath (named after a snake species) or raasheide (make a noise heath), is an erect shrublet reaching about 90 cm in height. There is also the common name ker-ker in onomatopoeic sense, the word resembling the sound when the plant is brushed against. This also explains raasheide.

The plant tends to branch much. The branches of E. imbricata are tufted with the small, narrow or needle-like leaves gathered at their tips. The leaves grow in whorls of four and are microscopically hairy.

The flowers grow in threes or bigger clusters at stem-tips and on side-branchlets or short-shoots. They are oval in shape and often sticky. The flower colour is usually white, but variable to include also pink, brown or red forms. The calyx is almost as long as the corolla, enveloping it, so that it is mainly the bracts and sepals that are most visible. The name imbricata (Latin for overlapping), reflects this floral feature.

The eight dark brown anthers that taper at the base are characteristically exserted (protruding). The style also protrudes, its stigma of pinhead proportions. These feature help somewhat with identification of the plant, although there are hundreds of Erica species that share characteristics and E. placentaeflora is a particularly similar species. These two species can be distinguished by the latter having a more spherical corolla shape and a more lax growth habit. 

The plants flower from late winter to early summer, sometimes all year round.

E. imbricata is found in nature in the Western Cape, from Vanrhynsdorp to Albertinia, on the Swartberg north of Oudtshoorn and in the Langkloof to Joubertina. 

The habitat is fynbos mountain slopes. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning and Helme, 2024; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Bean and Johns, 2005; Baker and Oliver, 1967; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).