Erica densifolia

Erica densifolia, commonly the sticky red-and-green heath, is an erect shrub growing sturdy branches that become woody and reach heights around 90 cm. The single-stemmed plant does not resprout after fire.

The leaves grow variably: whorled in threes around the stems or densely imbricate (overlapping) and ascending, incurving or spreading. Leaf shape also varies, even on the same plant, some ovate or lanceolate, while others may be linear, sometimes marked with grooves. The leaf margins curve downwards or rolled under, sometimes closing the gap at the back, sometimes not. Young leaves are often hairy.

The sticky flowers are mostly solitary at the tips of small side-branches clustered near the ends of the erect stems. This creates the appearance that they grow in racemes. The flowers are long (2,4 cm to 3 cm), tubular and slightly hairy with shallow, rounded, yellow and green lobes that open slightly. The flower tubes vary in colour from pinkish red to orange-red. The dark anthers are inside the tube, deeper than the lobes, while the long style is exserted against the top of the slightly down-curved corolla tube. Flowering occurs throughout the year, barring winter.

The plant grows in the Western Cape and the western part of the Eastern Cape, in Swartberge, the Langeberge, the Kammanassie and other mountains of the southern Cape from Swellendam to Humansdorp.

The habitat is fynbos flats and lower to middle slopes of sandstone. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning and Helme, 2024; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Baker and Oliver, 1967; iNaturalist; iSpot; http://redlist.sanbi.org).