Erica glauca var. elegans

Erica glauca, commonly known as cup-and-saucer heath and in Afrikaans as kommetjie-pieringheide (bowl-saucer heath), is a robust, erect shrub reaching about 1,8 m in height. There are sparse side-branchlets near the stem-tips. E. glauca var. elegans in flower is more showy than E. glauca var. glauca that bears more flowers and grows bigger.

In the Baker and Oliver classification, the species forms part of the Eurystegia group of Erica species characterised by stem-tip flowers with large coloured sepals and bracts around large corollas that hide their anthers within. Manning and Helme groups the species with Cloaked Heaths that have large papery and petal-like sepals.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape from the Koue Bokkeveld and the Hex River Mountains to Wellington and Elgin. Var. elegans is more widespread than the other variety, strongly represented in the mountains near Bain's Kloof where the photos shown here were taken during October.

The habitat is lower to middle fynbos slopes. The habitat populations of both varieties are deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century.

This plant is found in cultivation and is easy to grow, but not seen in gardens as often as it might be (Manning and Helme, 2024; Baker and Oliver, 1967; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; iSpot; http://redlist.sanbi.org).