Erica lateralis

Erica lateralis, commonly called button heath, is an erect or sprawling shrublet that reaches heights around 50 cm.

The leaves grow in whorls of four. They are small, needle-like or linear, hairy or not and only faintly grooved below.

The specific name, lateralis, suggests something on the side, probably referring to the urn-shaped flowers that hang out to the side of the branches on peduncles as long as 8 mm, twice as long as the flower. The flowers mostly grow in groups of four at branch tips on short stalks. There are scale-like or needle-like bracts and bracteoles about halfway up the pedicels, the stalks. The flowers are urn-shaped, bulging with fused petals that have four tiny flaring lobes at the tiny corolla mouths. This is where the styles are well exserted, ending in pinhead stigmas, while the eight dark anthers are shorter, sometimes just visible. Flowering starts in summer, continuing until early winter.

The distribution of the species is in the Western Cape from Tulbagh to Bredasdorp.

The habitat is fynbos mountain slopes. 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).