Erica vestita in the Overberg

The tallest of these Erica vestita summer flowers would see the Overberg town of Caledon in the distance if they had eyes.

Most flowers are at the stem-tips, although some stems have already started growing beyond the seasonally sprouted inflorescences, en route to next year’s delivery. Below the colourful flowers similarly shaped dark ones are visible, the earlier ones. Those are the persistent corolla tubes of spent flowers by now growing seeds in the ovaries below.

The lush green, long and thin leaves add festive colouring. The flowers of this Erica are pretty, but it is the shimmer in the plant's leaf covering that brought it the common name of trembling heath (Manning and Helme, 2024; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2009; iNaturalist).