Perennial herb (0.3–) 0.6–1.0 (–1.2) m high; annual stems erect or scrambling, not rooting at nodes. Leaves shortly petiolate to subsessile; petiole 5–10 mm long; lamina ovate to sub-orbicular, becoming narrower (lanceolate) above, 40–75 (–140) mm long, 20–60 (–105) mm wide, broadly cuneate basally, shortly serrate, acute to obtuse, often grey-green, densely and coarsely scabrous both surfaces. Capitula 1–3; peduncles 10–12 cm long (often with a median pair of small leafy bracts); involucral bracts ovate to lanceolate, 5–6 mm long, c. as long as disc florets, densely appressed-scabrous dorsally; paleae linear-lanceolate, 5.5 mm long in flower, yellowish. Ray florets 10–12 (–16); ligule 9–12 mm long, 2-(or 3)-lobed. Disc florets 10–20. Achenes obovoid, 2.5–3.0 (–4.0) mm long, 1.5–2.0 mm wide, 2-angled and compressed (disc achenes) or 3-angled (ray achenes), the angles sometimes with narrow corky wings, grey-black, sometimes mottled, smooth or slightly rugose. Pappus a ring of tiny laciniate scales, with 1 or 2 sometimes elongated into soft ‘awns’ to 0.5 mm long.
Found in usually sandy soils in grasslands, on beaches, in grassy understorey of Eucalyptus/Corymbia woodland, and understorey of monsoon forest/vine thicket, at altitudes from sea-level to 650(–1000) m.
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