a stout shrub; branches greyish-tomentose and hirsute; leaves very much crowded up to the heads, concealing the stem, broad elliptic-oblong to lanceolate, rounded, rarely truncate, entire or 3-toothed at the apex, somewhat narrowed at the base, 1 1/2–3 in. long, 7–4 lin. broad, distinctly veined with the midrib prominent beneath, minutely but densely greyish-tomentose, at length more or less glabrous; heads sessile among the top leaves, yellow, excepting the red stigmas, 1 1/2–2 1/2 in. long, and almost as wide, with a definite involucre of imbricate barren bracts; receptacle cylindric, 3/4–1 in. long, 2–3 lin. wide; barren and floral bracts similar, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, more or less, sometimes long, acuminate, up to 3/4 in. long, finely tomentose to subglabrous, or (the inner) very densely hirsute-tomentose on the back, usually with long straight hairs besides, margins long hirsute-ciliate; adult flower-bud 1 1/2–2 in. long; perianth-tube 4 1/2–5 lin. long, contracted into a narrow base, finely pubescent above, glabrous beneath; adaxial and lateral claws permanently united into a concave or flattened-out flexuous or twisted sheath, recurved or revolute at the top, softly and loosely villous, over 1 in. long, abaxial claw adhering to the top of the sheath, very slender, villous like the sheath; limbs lanceolate, acute, 3 1/2 lin. long, long conniving and deflexed, at length spreading out like the prongs of a fork and inflexed on the revolute end of the claws, villous or softly hirsute; anthers sessile, linear-lanceolate, long-apiculate, 3 lin. long; hypogynous scales subulate, acute, over 1 lin. long; ovary oblong, minutely whitish-pubescent, 1 lin. long; style 2 to over 2 1/2 in. long, robust, more or less quadrangular above, glabrous; stigma subcylindric, slightly oblique at the base, obtuse, finely grooved, 2 1/2–3 1/2 lin. long. null