an apparently trailing low shrub; branches slender, villous or hirsute, at length glabrescent; leaves loosely scattered on decumbent shoots, all turned skywards, linear, acute or subacute, rarely obtuse, hardly narrowed at the base, 3/4–1 3/4 in. long, 1/2–2 lin. broad, more or less distinctly veined in the broader leaves, villous when young, then loosely pubescent; heads solitary or 2-nate, terminal, subterminal or overtopped and apparently lateral, peduncled, hemispherical, very many-flowered and compact, 5–7 lin. long, about 9 lin. across, rounded at the base, with a definite involucre of imbricate barren bracts; peduncle slender, 5–15 lin. long, tomentose, bearing scattered lanceolate, often reflexed, tomentose bracts; receptacle convex, very low; involucral bracts lanceolate, acute or acuminate, up to 3 lin. long, finely tomentose; floral bracts obovate-cuneate, abruptly acuminate or apiculate, 2 1/2–3 lin. long, densely tomentose; adult flower-bud 6–7 lin. long; perianth-tube tapering downwards, 3 1/2 lin. long, pubescent from the middle upwards; claws more or less equal and free with recurved tips, 2 lin. long, villous or tomentose; limbs deflexed, oblong, subacute, 1 lin. long, tomentose; anthers sessile, oblong, apiculate, 3/4 lin. long; hypogynous scales filiform, 1/2 lin. long; ovary oblong, 1/3 lin. long, pubescent, surrounded by hairs, 3/4 lin. long; style 6–7 lin. long, finely filiform, glabrous; stigma subclavate or cylindric, subobtuse, 1/2 lin. long, grooved; fruit ellipsoid, grey, including the short whitish conical beak 3 1/2 lin. long, loosely pubescent. null
