Erica nudiflora

Erica nudiflora, commonly called nudeflower heath or sometimes nude heath, is an erect or sprawling shrublet growing to heights around 30 cm. Its numerous branches are hairy.

The species is classified by Baker and Oliver in the Gypsocallis section of the Erica genus, consisting of plants growing their flowers from leaf axils with small corollas and exserted anthers. Manning and Helme created a different classification system in which this species belongs among the Small Bottlebrush Heaths that have one or two flowers in upper leaf axils in dense racemes or spikes near stem tops. 

The slender leaves grow in whorls of three, mostly linear and about 6 mm long and ascending to spreading around the stems. The blades are usually longitudinally furrowed above but hairless, while covered in stiff hairs below and the margins fringed.

The hairless flowers grow in many-flowered, long spikes from leaf axils. The keeled sepals are lance-shaped, up to 2 mm long with fringed margins.

The pink to red corollas are narrowly bell-shaped to tubular, about 4 mm long and the mouths narrowed. The about oblong, brown to blackish anthers are exserted, as are the white styles. Flowering happens from late summer to early winter.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape from Clanwilliam to the Cape Peninsula and Bredasdorp.

The habitat is dry, gravelly fynbos slopes at lower levels and flats. 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).