branches glabrous; leaves 3 3/4–4 3/4 in. long, 8–11 lin. broad, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, obtuse or retuse, narrowing at the base, indistinctly veined, glabrous; head contracted at the base into a scaly stipes, 2 1/2 in. long, about 2 1/2 in. in diam., globose; involucral bracts 16-seriate, densely tomentose, at length glabrous; outer ovate, obtuse; inner oblong-elliptic, incurved, not equalling the flowers; perianth-sheath glabrous, base dilated, 3-keeled with distinct intracarinal nerves; lip 6 lin. long, 3-toothed, 3-keeled, glabrous; stamens all fertile; filaments 1/4 lin. long, flattened, concave; anthers linear, 4 1/2 lin. long; apical glands 1/4 lin. long, elliptic, swollen on the inner face; ovary 3 lin. long, narrowly oblong, covered with a tuft of long reddish-brown hairs; style 1 1/4 in. long, curved in the lower half, tapering from the base upwards, slender above; stigma up to 6 1/2 lin. long, finely filiform, grooved, obtuse, almost imperceptibly passing into the style. null