Erica pubescens

Erica pubescens is an erect, hairy shrublet reaching 60 cm in height. It forms part of the Ephebus section of the Erica genus according to the classification presented by Baker and Oliver.

Hairs are present upon stems, leaves, flower stalks, bracts, sepals, some of them glandular; short and velvety on the corollas. Pubescent means covered with short, soft hairs or downy, derived from the Latin word pubens meaning the hair that appears on the human body at puberty.

Only few of the floral bracteoles, smaller than the sepals, are still present on the flower stalks in picture, a short distance behind the calyces. The older flowers, faded to white here (the other colour of this Erica), have their anthers protruding from the corolla mouths.

The species is distributed in the Western Cape from Clanwilliam and Worcester to the Cape Peninsula, the plant rarely seen in spite of its fairly wide distribution.

The habitat is dry fynbos slopes at lower and middle levels. The habitat population of E. pubescens subsp. pubescens is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century, while the survival status of the habitat population of the other subspecies, subsp. glabrifolia named for its hairless leaves, is unsure due to lack of data (Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; Baker and Oliver, 1967; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).