Subshrub 0.4–1.0 (–1.5) m high, 0.6–1.0 (–2.0) m diam.; young stems stiffly erect to spreading; older stems with white ±corky bark. Leaves sessile, linear, (15–) 25–30 (–80) mm long, (1–) 2–5 mm wide, cuneate basally, entire, bluntly acute, grey-green, coarsely appressed-scabrous on both surfaces. Capitula 1–3; peduncles stout, 6–9 cm long; outer involucral bracts ovate, 3–4 mm long, shorter than disc florets, densely and coarsely appressed-scabrous dorsally; inner bracts similar but narrower; paleae linear to narrowly oblanceolate, 5–6 mm long in flower, green. Ray florets 10–14; ligule 6 mm long, 2-lobed. Disc florets 25–30. Achenes obovoid, 4–5 mm long (excluding wings), 3-angled and-winged (ray achenes) or 2-angled and-winged (disc achenes), black with paler marginal angles/wings; angles usually winged, often anisopterous, with wings truncate or shortly auriculate, submembranous. Pappus a ring of small uneven fimbriate scales, sometimes with 1 or 2 short awns.
Found in dry, stony, well-drained sites, in loams, clays and skeletal red soils, on ironstones, basalts etc., among low shrubs and Triodia in open woodlands of mallee Eucalyptus, Acacia, Callitris, Brachychiton and other low trees, at altitudes up to at least 1100 m.
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