Erica frigida

Erica frigida, sometimes called ice heath and in southern Sotho known as khoarai, is a shrub or shrublet reaching heights around 50 cm. The branches are pale brown, hairy and densely leaf-covered, the older ones become leafless. The leaves are small, narrow, straight and hairy. 

White, pale pink or red flowers are borne on sticky stalks in small clusters or umbels at the ends of young stems. They are urn-shaped to narrowly ovoid and sticky to the touch. The sepals are small, narrow with acute tips and pink with much more colour here than the corolla. The short corolla lobes recurve slightly. The anthers are not visible outside the tube. Flowering may be during spring and summer.

The species distribution is inland parts of the Eastern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal; almost certainly also in Lesotho. This plant was photographed in the Mkhomazi Wilderness Area in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg during January.

The habitat is summer rainfall grassland in higher elevation mountainous terrain. The habitat population is still stable early in the 21st century, safeguarded by its remoteness where limited farming activity is possible (iNaturalist; http://www.worldfloraonline.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).