Erica glandulosa

Erica glandulosa, commonly known as glandular heath, is an erect as well as spreading, single-stemmed and quite variable shrub growing numerous side-branchlets and reaching heights from 50 cm to 1,8 m. There are four recognised subspecies. The stems are densely covered in gland-tipped hairs. 

The dark green, needle-like leaves grow in whorls of four with margins rolled under. The leaves are also densely covered in gland-tipped hairs. This makes the plant clammy to the touch and sticky, so that it acquires a dusty appearance that persists especially near dirt roads and exposed soil.

The stalked flowers grow on numerous short-shoots or side-branchlets in groups from two to five, appearing like racemes. There are narrow bracteoles behind the flowers pressed against the calyces. The needle-like sepals are, you guessed it, also covered in glandular hairs. The perianths are tubular, long, curved and shiny with darker lines running along the length of each. Some forms have (gland-tipped) hairs on the perianth tubes as well. The flower colour is pink to nearly red, orange and yellow with flaring lobes. Only the style of each flower is exserted, the eight anthers included, bent forward at the base and their filaments twisted near the anthers. Flowering happens all year round.

The partly coastal species is distributed in the east of the Western Cape from Mossel Bay and on the eastern parts of the Swartberg Mountains to the west of the Eastern Cape in the Baviaanskloof to near Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth).

The habitat is fynbos slopes and fynbos flats. The habitat populations of E. glandulosa subsp. glandulosa and subsp. bondiae are deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century, while subsp. fourcadei is vulnerable and subsp. breviflora is endangered. E. fourcadei has been included in this species (Manning and Helme, 2024; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; Baker and Oliver, 1967; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).