Species Erica comptonii

Pictures from Observations

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Range:

Location unknown

Locations of Identifications

Etymology of Erica:

Gk. ereike = to break. The name used for a heath by Theophrastus (372–287 BCE) and Pliny the Elder. The stems are brittle and break easily (Lindsay); or possibly but less likely because of the ability of the plant to break up bladder stones (Paxton’s Botanical Dictionary).

Etymology of comptonii:

Honoring Prof. Robert Harold Compton (1886-1979). Cambridge educated botanist and the second director of Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, he made more than 35 000 collections. In 1914 he parrticipated in a field expedition to New Caledonia and found both new genera and new species. This collecting register is in the British Museum. After war service from 1915-1918 he became a professor of botany at the University of Cape Town. He founded and edited the Journal of South African Botany. Upon his retirement he settled in Swaziland and undertook a survey of the territory.

Scientific name:

Erica comptonii Salter

Common names:

Localities:

South Africa

Synonym of:

Erica banksii subsp. comptonii

Long etymology:

Authors:

Salter

Protologue:

J. S. African Bot. 2: 60 (1936); Bothalia 20[1&2]: 208-209 (1990)

Synonym status:

Homotypic synonym

Year published:

1936

Erect shrublet to 60 cm. Flowers large, tubular, white with reflexed green lobes, with exserted anthers. Jan.--July. Rocky moist high alt. slopes, SW (Kogelberg area).