Erica lanata flowers

The nodding, nearly stalkless flowers of Erica lanata grow in small, terminal groups on side-branchlets, usually four to six of them. There are sepal-like bracteoles closely below the flowers. Both these shorter, paddle-shaped, brown or green-brown bracteoles, the very woolly sepals and the longer, less hairy, white petals are pointed. The bracts and sepals are pinkish in the bud stage, the long hairs upon them then silvery. The buds are erect, opening before they turn down to nod.

The needle-like, white sepals are conspicuously covered in dense, woolly hairs, hairier than the petals. The flower centres are deep brown from the large, exserted, ribbed anthers. The long, whitish brown style is exserted notably further than the eight anthers, emerging from their midst and browning with age. The style protrudes further than the stamens, ending in the pinhead stigma.

Flowering happens from before midsummer to after midspring. The photo was taken in January (Manning and Helme, 2024; Moriarty, 1997; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; JSTOR).