Erica sparsa flowers

The flowers of Erica sparsa grow in groups of three at the tips of small side-branchlets. They are aggregated in dense panicles. The flowers are small, about 1 mm long, presenting an open cup-shape with rounded petal lobes. The calyx is pink, pale pink or nearly white like the corolla, but less than half its length and hairy along its margins, unlike the hairless corolla.

The plant can be many-flowered in its long blooming season that lasts from autumn to spring as one common name, the floriferous heath confirms. There is nothing sparse about this generous blooming that offers much work and reward to the insects that pollinate the flowers, particularly bees. The Latin word sparsum means to scatter, possibly related with flowers all over, but that is speculation. 

The eight brown to almost blackish purple anthers are not exserted as the style, but still conspicuous in the open corolla cup that is not pendulous. The anthers are rounded at the base. The stigma is large, cone-shaped or cup-shaped and reddish (Manning and Helme, 2024; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Baker and Oliver, 1967; iNaturalist; www.plantzafrica.com).