Erica leucanthera

Erica leucanthera, commonly known as pale heath and in Afrikaans as heuningheide (honey heath), is an erect shrublet reaching about 90 cm. The many upper branchlets are hair-felted. The yellow green, three-whorled leaves are scale-like or shortly needle-like, pressed against the stems or spreading.

According to the Baker and Oliver Erica classification the plant belongs in a section called Polycodon, the small, stem-tip flowers in threes with cone-shaped corollas, the anthers not pointed and mostly included. Manning and Helme has the plant in a category called Goblet Heaths, the corollas cup-shaped or goblet-shaped with short tubes and larger lobes.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape, from Clanwilliam and the Cederberg to Franschhoek and eastwards to Robertson and the Riviersonderend Mountains. The photo is from near Tulbagh.

The habitat is fynbos slopes and sandy flats. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning and Helme, 2024; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; Baker and Oliver, 1967; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).