Erica mauritanica

Erica mauritanica, commonly known as keyhole heath and earlier scientifically as E. viridipurpurea, is a floriferous shrub growing from 50 cm to 1 m in height. It is unsure whether this species is distinct from E. quadrangularis.

The small pink or white flowers arrive at stem-tips by late winter until spring, their corollas dry and less than 5 mm long. The anthers are included in the corollas. The keyhole heath name was given on account of small holes in the buds.

These features mean that this plant conforms to the Orophanes Section within the huge Erica genus, as classified by Baker and Oliver. Manning and Helme placed the species among what they call Florists' Heath, plants that bear cup-shaped flowers with eight anthers, small sepals and four-whorled, needle-like leaves on upright, rounded plants up to 70 cm in height. Subdivision into smaller homogeneous groups does help the learning about the ericas, but there are then still a large number of small groups in the genus to contend with.

The species distribution is in the southwest of the Western Cape, from the Cape Peninsula to around Stellenbosch and the Hottentots Holland Mountains. 

The habitat is fynbos on seasonally wet lower slopes and flats. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning and Helme, 2024; Bond and Goldblatt; 1984; Baker and Oliver, 1967; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).