Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Melichrus erubescens

Common name

Ruby Urn Heath

Family

Ericaceae

Where found

Forest, woodland, shrubland, and rocky outcrops. Western Slopes. Occasionally elsewhere.

Notes

Shrub to 1.2 m high. Fruit fleshy. Leaves sharp pointed. Branchlets hairy, with prominent leaf scars. Leaves alternating up the stems, crowded towards the ends of the stems, 1.1–3 cm long, 1.4–4.2 mm wide, hairless or finely rough, deeply 8–16-ribbed on lower surface, margins finely toothed. Flowers pink to deep red, tubular, the tube cup-shaped, 2.5–3.8 mm long, with 5 spreading lobes 1.5–2.2 mm long. Flowers single at the bases of the leaves, almost hidden among the leaves, forming leafy clusters. Flowering: February–October. Fruit red, flattened round, 4–5 mm long, finely ribbed.

Family was Epacridaceae.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Melichrus~erubescens (accessed 24 January, 2021)