''Erica trimera'' is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

. It is a shrub or tree which grows in the mountains of eastern and central Africa.

Description

''Erica trimera'' is an evergreen shrub or tree which grows from .4 to 12 meters in height, with a many-branching habit. It has small leaves, 1 to 7–10 mm long and 0.4 to 1.4 wide, which are generally smooth with tiny hairs along the margins. Flowers grow in clusters of 4 to 12 at branch ends.

Range and habitat

''Erica trimera'' is native to the mountains of Eastern and Central Africa, ranging from

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...

through

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The south ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

, and the northeastern

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. It is native to high-elevation areas of the mountains, including the

Ethiopian Highlands The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below , while the summits reach heights of up to ...

in Ethiopia,

Mount Elgon Mount Elgon is an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya, north of Kisumu and west of Kitale. The mountain's highest point, named "Wagagai", is located entirely within Uganda.

and

Mount Kenya Mount Kenya ( Kikuyu: ''Kĩrĩnyaga'', Kamba, ''Ki Nyaa'') is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian (), Nelion () and Point Lenana (). Mount Kenya is loc ...

in Kenya,

Mount Meru Mount Meru ( Sanskrit/ Pali: मेरु), also known as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and sp ...

and

Mount Kilimanjaro Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: above sea level and ab ...

in Tanzania, and the

Rwenzori Mountains The Ruwenzori, also spelled Rwenzori and Rwenjura, are a range of mountains in eastern equatorial Africa, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The highest peak of the Ruwenzori reaches , and the range ...

on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is typically found in the subalpine ericaceous belt, a transitional zone between the

Afromontane The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions ...

forests and the higher-elevation Afroalpine grasslands and shrublands, from approximately 3000 to 4000 meters elevation. In the ericaeous belt it is often co-dominant with ''

Erica arborea ''Erica arborea'', the tree heath or tree heather, is a species of flowering plant (angiosperms) in the heather family Ericaceae, native to the Mediterranean Basin and Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa. It is also cultivated as an or ...

'', and can form dense thickets or low forests.Bussmann, Rainer W. (2006). "Vegetation zonation and nomenclature of African Mountains - An overview". ''Lyonia'' Volume 11(1), June 2006.

Subspecies

Six subspecies are recognized: * ''Erica trimera'' subsp. ''abyssinica'' (Pic.Serm. & Heiniger) Dorr – Ethiopian Highlands in Ethiopia * ''Erica trimera'' subsp. ''elgonensis'' (Mildbr.) Beentje – Mount Elgon in Kenya * ''Erica trimera'' subsp. ''keniensis'' (S.Moore) Beentje – Mount Kenya in Kenya * ''Erica trimera'' subsp. ''kilimanjarica'' (Hedberg) Beentje – Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania * ''Erica trimera'' subsp. ''meruensis'' (R.Ross) Beentje – Mount Meru and

Mount Loolmalasin Mount Loolmalasin (sometimes spelled "Loolmalassin") is a mountain located in the Ngorongoro District of the Arusha Region, Tanzania. It has a peak elevation of above sea level. It is, after Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru, the third-highest mo ...

in Tanzania * ''Erica trimera'' subsp. ''trimera'' – Ruwenzori Mountains of Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo

References

{{Taxonbar, from= Q15384107 trimera Afromontane flora Flora of East Tropical Africa Flora of Ethiopia Alpine flora Plants described in 1895 Taxa named by Adolf Engler