Erica calycina

Erica calycina, commonly called the calycine heath and sometimes bonnet heath, is an erect shrub growing rod-like stems covered in felted and tufted hairs. The needle-like leaves grow in spaced whorls of three, ascending on the creamy upper stems. There are tufted hairs along the leaf margins.

The very variable species of which five recognised varieties exist reaches heights from 1 m to 2 m. In the Baker and Oliver classification of ericas E. calycina is placed in a category called Eurystoma, plants with stem-tip flowers growing in threes, their corollas obconic, cyathiform or nearly bell-shaped with anthers clearly visible. Manning and Helme group it among Cloaked Heaths with large papery sepals forming cloaks around cup- or urn-shaped corollas, the anthers mostly with jagged crests at the base.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape, from the Cape Peninsula northwards to around the Cederberg and eastwards to Riviersonderend. The photo was taken near Tulbagh.

The habitat is rocky slopes of fynbos covered mountains and sandy flats. The habitat populations of four of the varieties are deemed of least concern, the situation of the fifth one unknown due to insufficient data (Manning and Helme, 2024; Baker and Oliver, 1967; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).