stems usually many from a perennial rootstock, erect, 1/2–1 1/2 ft. high, 1/2–1 lin. thick at the base, woody, simple or branching, leafy throughout or naked with prominent leaf-scars below, puberulous or glabrous; leaves alternate, scattered or crowded and somewhat imbricate, ascending, very shortly petiolate or subsessile, coriaceous, subrigid, 4–8 lin. long, 1 1/2–2 1/2 (rarely 3) lin. long, lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate or ovate, acute, with a rather pungent point, rounded at the base, glabrous on both sides; umbel terminal, 4–5-rayed, 3/4–2 in. in diam.; rays 1/2–2 in. long, once or twice forked or occasionally with a series of several pairs of barren bracts, glabrous; bracts 1 1/2–4 lin. long, 2–5 lin. broad, very broadly ovate or transversely elliptic-ovate, acute, with a subpungent apiculus, broadly rounded or cuneately rounded at the base, coriaceous or subrigid, glabrous; involucres sessile, 1 1/4–1 1/2 lin. in diam., cup-shaped, glabrous, with 4 glands and 5 subquadrate or oblong slightly denticulate lobes; glands 1/3– 3/4 lin. in their greater diam., somewhat crescent-shaped or narrowly transversely oblong, with a short horn at each end; capsule about 1 3/4 lin. in diam., tricoccous, glabrous, exserted about 1/2 lin. beyond the involucre on a curved pedicel; styles free, 1/2 lin. long, bifid at the apex, spreading; seeds not seen. null