Dwarf shrub, main stems up to 10 mm diam., woody, gnarled, lateral branches prostrate, spreading, intricately branched, ultimate branchlets erect to c. 30 mm, densely leafy. Leaves spreading, mostly 5 — 15 x 0,75 — 1 (—2) mm, linear, apex subacute, base broad, clasping, both surÂfaces enveloped in thick silvery grey, closely woven, slightly glossy, skin-like indumentÂum. Heads homogamous, campanulate, c. 4x4 mm, up to 10 in a tight globose cluster surrounded by a few linear bracts, the heads more or less free from each other, each cluster at the tip of an erect terminal remotely leafy silky-felted peduncle 10 — 50 mm tall. Involucral bracts in c. 5 series, graded, imbricate, about equalling flowers, tawny or straw-coloured, tips obtuse or subacute, crisped, minutely radiating. ReÂceptacle shortly honeycombed. Flowers 15—36. Achenes not seen, ovaries glabrous. Pappus bristles many, about equalling corolla, tips barbellate, bases nude, not cohering. Fig 27: 2.
