Erica subdivaricata - a sad story

Southern Africa
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@JoC Do you have a copy pf the ERICA pocketbook?
It describes this so well and the drawings show all the diagnostics.
Also one can compare it with the other similar species with the anther appendages
My sad story was finding the Bolus specimen collected in Fish Hoek 1918. nothing like that now, and not even when we were children,
My observation was from the reserve at Cape Point.

It has the links to Bolus.
@Luisa - the other similar Ericas with the strange anther appendages are only found at Cape Point - tourists drive past them and don’t know what they are missing.
I’ll see if I can find some links to attach.

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Have you looked at the Ericas at Kew/Wisley? I always wonder how similar the species look when growing there compared to native area and indeed how much effect collecting an odd sample of seed might have.

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Remember KEW has a seed bank, there was a team in Cape Town that would go around collecting seeds.

Then there is the Erica which was considered extinct in the wild in the Cape and has been reintroduced see here:

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Yes I have been down in the seed bank at Wakehurst. I also went to the princess of wales conservatory at kew before it was opened, bit odd to be there before any plants or the hoards of people.

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Yes, I have Ericas of the Cape Peninsula; E. subdivarica is #67. The key starts with the size of the corolla…

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We never went without it, rain or shine, so my copy is quite battered.
The most important things to compare with the little white Cape Point plants is the shape of the anther appendages. But then the snag is they’re REDLISTED, so we common mortals were not permitted to pick them (even with my permit) - so that’s why I tried to get close ups into the mouth of the flowers. THEN the wind would do it’s best to blur the shots.
But we had fun.