Erica lanata flowers

The nodding flowers of Erica lanata grow in small, terminal groups, usually four of them.

There are sepal-like bracts closely below the flowers. Both these shorter, brown or green-brown bracts, 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 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 anthers, emerging from their midst and browning with age.

Flowering happens through a long season from midsummer to midspring. The photo was taken in January (Moriarty, 1997; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; JSTOR).