Erica strigilifolia incurving leaves

The overlapping leaves of Erica strigilifolia grow in whorls of four, erect or spreading, about 4 mm long. The leaf-shape is oblong to elliptic or wedge-shaped with acute tips that curve in. Leaves are covered in coarse whitish hairs, particularly on the margins and in the narrow white slits of lower (outer) leaf surfaces where the margins rolled under do not quite meet.

The leaves are rough to the touch, sometimes described as bristly. The common names of scraper heath and bristle-leaved heath relate to this roughness. A strigilis (Latin) is a flesh-scraper, flesh-brush or strigil, used to stimulate the skin after a bath. Most people feeling the need for such treatment will hopefully find an easier way than climbing a Cape mountain in search of a branch of this particular Erica (Manning and Helme, 2024; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Moriarty, 1997; Baker and Oliver, 1967; iNaturalist).