shrubby below, suffruticose above, stem and leaves very thickly clothed with whitish, interwoven wool; leaves oblong or linear-oblong, or tongue-shaped, nigro-mucronate, the uppermost on the fl. branches tipped with a scabrous-membranous scale; heads (large) terminal, solitary or aggregated, very many-fl.; invol. globose, radiating, glabrous and glossy, scales snow-white, loosely imbricating in very many rows, all lanceolate, acuminate; recept. clothed with acuminate, scale-like fimbrils, longer than the ovaries; pappus bristles concrete at base, minutely rough. Stem 1â2 feet high, robust, densely leafy; branches short or long, erect, virgate, laxly leafy, the upper leaves smaller, and degenerating to bracts, tipped with a white scale. Leaves 2â2 1/2 inches long, 1/4â1 inch wide. Heads an inch diameter.