Erica vestita flowering pale

Occasional Erica vestita plants flower a paler pink than the majority seen near Caledon. There are also deep pink, purple and white flowering forms in the species. The flowering season isn’t over on this plant, although the time of the photo was not really a busy period. Some new buds are half covered in leaves, while some old flowers have had their day already.

The stem-tip leaves are more erect than lower down, the curving in leaves fairly minimal. Leaf yellowness is restricted to stem-tip, youngest leaves. The bare stems of the plant base are pale grey and woody, the bark appearing fairly smooth in the picture. A few dry leaves in the border between leaves and bare stems haven’t dropped off from this plant.

New growth is restricted away from the ground, on higher-up parts of these fairly erect stems (Manning and Helme, 2024; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2009; iNaturalist).