Shrub to 3 m tall, without lignotuber. Bark smooth. Stems villous, rusty, glabrescent. Leaves alternate; petiole 2-4 mm long; lamina narrowly elliptic, obovate, cuneate or linear, commonly 2-5 cm long, 5-20 mm wide, acute or obtuse, pungent; margins recurved, entire to serrate; upper surface hirsute, glabrescent; lower surface hirsute on nerves, glabrescent, with tomentose pits. Inflorescence 5-15 cm long; involucral bracts to 10 mm long, tomentose, commonly falling by flowering. Flowers pale pink-mauve in bud, pale yellow at flowering; limb often grey or blue; style pale yellow. Perianth usually 18-20 mm long including limb of 3-4 mm, silky-pubescent outside, glabrous inside. Pistil gently curved, slender, 17-28 mm long, glabrous; pollen presenter 1 mm long, scarcely thickened. Old flowers soon falling. Follicles up to 150, elliptic, 12-18 mm long, 3-8 mm high, 4-9 mm wide; valves semi-elliptic, smooth, villous, glabrescent. Seed obovate, 13-18 mm long; seed body lunate, 6-8 mm long, 2-4 mm wide, slightly rugose.
Grows in rocky, granitic or sandstone soil on slopes and in gullies, in low open-woodland and open heath.
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