Perennial, compact subshrub, (5-)7-10(-12) cm tall with very short internodes. Leaves sessile, base petiole-like with spines 3-5 mm long; lamina oblanceolate, 35-45(-70) x 4-6(-10) mm, puberulent to hirsute with strigose to spreading short hairs, also with subsessile glandular hairs; apex acute, base attenuate, margin undulate, coarsely dentate-spinose, spines rigid, 2-4 mm long, yellowish, often reddish towards base. Inflorescences semi-dense, cylindrical, subsessile to shortly pedunculate with 3 (or 4) pairs of peduncular bracts at the base, (25-)40-60(-90) mm long, 6-9(-10) mm in diameter; peduncle up to 20 mm long, pubescent with spreading hairs. Bracts obovate to wedge-shaped, 17-23 mm long (including spines), lamina 7-9(-11) mm long, base attenuate; hirsute to pubescent with deflexed or spreading short hairs and short to subsessile glandular hairs abaxially, silky-hairy adaxially, lamina rarely villose with long spreading, antrorse hairs (see Pearson 3346, BOL); middle and upper bracts ending in 5 primary spines; central primary spine usually simple or occasionally with 1 pair of very short, marginal secondary spines; lateral primary spines often with 1 basal secondary spine on side facing central primary spine; spines often porrect in flower, porrect to recurved in fruit. Bracteoles linear, 7-8 mm long, silky-hairy, especially towards base. Calyx with dorsal sepal ovate, apiculate, 11-12 mm long, silky-hairy especially adaxially, 7(-9)-veined; ventral sepal ovate, 10-11 mm long, 5-7-veined, silky-hairy especially adaxially; lateral sepals 7 mm long, silky-hairy especially adaxially, often with fringe of long, silky hairs around margin, 3-veined from base. Corolla white or cream to lilac with purple veins and white or cream throat, 20-25(-27) x 8-10(-12) mm, tube 5-8(-10) mm long, central lobe wider than long or equal, constricted at the base, emarginate. Filaments 6-7 mm long, glandular; anthers beige to orange, 3 mm long. Style with patch of glandular hairs at the base. Capsules 8-9 x 3 mm. Seed 3 x 3 mm.
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Villous (but see var. B), stem 1 in. long, woody, densely leafy; leaves 3 by 0.3 in., pinnatifid, doubly spinous-toothed; spike 2-3 by 0.5 in.; bract (without the spines) 0.5 by 0.3 in., obovate, truncate, crowned by 5 narrow-lanceolate spinous teeth0.25-0.3 in. long, without any secondary (apparently inner) spines round the top; bracteoles 0.5 in. long, linear; calyx hairy without and within; anticous segment 0.3 in. long; corolla 0.75 in. long.
Prickly, stemless, shortly hairy perennial, up to 200 mm tall, from a woody base. Leaves narrowly lanceolate, acutely lobed, lobes tipped with straw-coloured spines. Flowers among bracts in prickly, ± slender cylindrical spikes, white, mauve or blue; bracts wedge-shaped, shortly hairy, apex ± truncate or shallowly lobed, with 5 simple or rarely ± compound, long, rigid spines, outspread in fruit.
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