suffruticose at base, erect or ascending, branches virgate, closely leafy to the summit, woolly; lower leaves oblong, medial and upper linear-subulate, with strongly revolute margins, sordidly woolly, acute, mucronate, at length often nude and then scabrous above, the uppermost often tipped with a membranous scale; heads sessile, very many-flowered; inv. ovate-oblong, radiating, its scales lustrous, scarious, imbricating, oblong-lanceolate, acute, fulvous-yellow. 12–18 inches high, tufted; stems simple, or corymbosely branched, the branches virgate, 1-headed. Leaves about uncial, the lower ones sometimes 4–5 lines wide, the rest 1–2 lines wide, erect or squarrose, several of those near the heads tipped with a polished scale. Wool dirty whitish or fulvous. Pappus bristle-shaped, rough or serrulate. This has quite the habit of a Helipterum, but wants the plumose pappus. All Ecklon's and Drege's specimens of “ Hel. ferrugineum ” that I have seen, belong to this species.
