Erica vestita flowering pale

Occasional Erica vestita plants flower a paler pink than the majority seen near Caledon. There are also deep pink, purple and white flowering forms in the species. The flowering season isn’t over on this plant, although the time of the photo was not really a busy period. Some new buds are half covered in leaves, while the oldest, darkened flowers lower down have had their day.

The stem-tip leaves are more erect than mature ones, the slight leaf curvature increasing slowly. Leaf yellowness is restricted to the youngest ones at stem-tips. The bare stems of the plant base are pale grey and woody, the bark appearing fairly smooth in the picture. A few dry leaves in the border between the leaves and woody stems haven’t dropped off from this plant.

New growth is restricted to parts away from the ground, higher up on the fairly erect stems (Manning and Helme, 2024; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2009; iNaturalist).