stem suffruticose at base, branches long, erect, tomentose, laxly leafy; leaves broad-based, half-clasping, oblongo-lanceolate, acuminate, 3-nerved, loosely woolly on both sides (the old becoming naked above); heads in densely much branched, subglobose cymes, 12–15-fl., heterogamous; inv. glabrous, campanulate, scales loosely imbricated, squarrose, undulate, submembranous, obtuse, rufous or cream-coloured; fimbrils long. Allied to H. rugulosum in foliage and involucres; but with much smaller fl. heads, longer fimbrils, &c. Leaves spreading or deflexed, 3/4–1 inch long, 2–4 lines wide at base. Heads 1 1/2 line long. Drege's specimen of “H. capitell. β. mollius, DC.” in Hb. Hook. is a more woolly state of this species; but specimens also from Drege, and similarly marked in Hb. Sond., belong to H. erosum, γ. concolorum.
