an erect shrub, 3–5 ft. high; branches tomentellous; leaves 3–5 3/4 in. long, 4–11 lin. broad, linear to linear-oblong, subobtuse, penninerved with a conspicuous midrib, glabrous or woolly at the base; head sessile, 4 1/2–5 in. long, about 3 in. in diam.; involucral bracts 11-seriate; outer squarrose, recurved, densely silky-pubescent or glabrescent; inner oblong or linear-oblong, densely silky-pubescent or tomentose above, innermost with an oblanceolate limb and a slender claw bearing a purplish-black beard up to 2 1/2 lin. long, exceeding the flowers; perianth-sheath 2 1/2 in. long, base dilated, glabrous, faintly 5–7-nerved and 3-keeled, otherwise loosely pubescent to densely villous; lip 1 1/4 in. long, 3-awned, villous along the sides, glabrous on the back, long and densely ciliate above; lateral awns 9 lin. long, densely ciliate, cilia secund and up to 3 lin. long, purple or fulvous; median awn 3 1/2 lin. long, filiform; fertile stamens 3; anthers linear, 3 lin. long, apical glands 1/2 lin. long, ovate, acuminate, acute, keeled on the inner face; filaments 2 lin. long, dilated, concave; barren anther 2 lin. long, linear, acute, eglandular, with a filament 2 lin. long; ovary oblong, 3 lin. long, covered with long reddish-brown hairs; style 2 1/3 in. long, tapering upwards, compressed up to the middle, then terete, shortly villous; stigma 3 lin. long, linear, obtuse, distinctly kneed and bent at the junction with the style. null
