Erica rhopalantha var. rhopalantha

Erica rhopalantha is an erect, rounded or compact shrublet reaching 50 cm in height. It is very similar to the more common E. coriifolia that often grows in the same places, but flowering times, rarely coinciding. E. rhopalantha has bigger flowers on smaller, hairless plants with numerous slender branches.

The linear or narrowly oblong leaves grow in whorls of three or opposite, adhering to the stems. The grooved leaves have acutely pointed tips, about 2,5 mm long.

Many flowers of a maroon-pink, rosy or pale red colour appear near stem-tips, mostly from the end of spring to the end of autumn. The corolla is urn-shaped to cone-shaped with a broadly bulging base and a slender throat. The specific name rhopalantha comes from the Latin word rhopalon, meaning cudgel or club. The tiny corolla lobes at the flower mouths curve outwards; they are about a quarter of the length of the corolla tubes. Broad, obovate sepals, coloured the same as the corolla, clutch more than or about the back halves of the corollas. The sepals have dark keel tips, conspicuous around the corolla.

The plants grow in the Western Cape from the Cape Peninsula to Bredasdorp.

They occur on sandy, fynbos flats and slopes. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century.

E. rhopalantha var. rhopalantha is a dark pink to mauve form growing in the same distribution area. The other variety, E. rhopalantha var. delapsa, also endemic to the Western Cape, is said to be planted in gardens in Australia (Manning and Helme, 2024; Baker and Oliver, 1967; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).