Erica viscaria subsp. longifolia flowers

Flower colour of Erica viscaria subsp. longifolia varies much, the variations including white, pale or greenish yellow, green, pink, purple and red or even bicoloured. Eleven colour variations have been noted, all somewhat geographically distinct.

The flowers grow in short, dense spikes or whorls near leaf tips. Long, narrow green sepals taper to acute tips upon the back ends of the corollas. There are leaf-like bracts a short distance behind the sepals.

The corolla is tubular and slightly down-curving, 12 mm to 22 mm long, with four, short, ragged-edged petal lobes that flare at the mouth. The tube may either contract or widen just before the mouth.

The brown to black anthers converging in the photo as if in homage around the style below the stigma do not reach the corolla mouth.

The corolla is usually covered in short hairs, not much in evidence in this photo taken in Fernkloof in October (Bean and Johns, 2005; Baker and Oliver, 1967; iSpot).