Erica cruenta

Erica cruenta, commonly known as crimson heath and in Afrikaans rooiheide (red heath), is a branched, erect shrub growing many short-shoots and reaching heights from 1 m to 1,5 m. The coppicing species resprouts after fire.

The ascending, overlapping leaves are small, narrow and straight, from 5 mm to 8 mm long.

The shiny, dark red to blood red flowers are born in clusters near stem tips, each at the tip of a tiny side branch, accompanied by needle-like bracteoles o the stalk and backed by lanceolate sepals with sticky glands along their margins. The specific name, cruenta, is derived from the Latin word cruento meaning to make bloody, referring to the red of the corollas. The flower has a long corolla tube of up to 2,5 cm. This slightly curved tube bulges slightly just before the mouth when open. The obtusely pointed corolla lobes flare slightly, containing the eight dark anthers inside the flower mouth, while the style is slightly exserted, ending in a pinhead stigma. The flowering season is all year round.

This species grows in the south of the Western Cape, from Grabouw and the Kogelberg eastwards as far as Mossel Bay.

The habitat is lower clay and shale slopes in fynbos and renosterveld. While agriculture has diminished the plant's presence, the habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning and Helme, 2024; Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; Burman and Bean, 1985; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; Andrew, 2017; iNaturalist; iSpot; http://redlist.sanbi.org).