Shrub, with short underground fire-tolerant stems. Leaves: petiole 1-3 cm long; lamina pinnatipartite, 10-17 cm long, 7-13 mm wide, broadly channelled along midrib on upper surface; margins tightly revolute; lobes 40-85 each side, linear, pungent, twisted so that upper half of lobe is horizontal. Inflorescence subtended by a few filiform hirsute 'bracts'; involucral bracts to 20 mm long, obtuse to shortly acute, appressed-pubescent to hirsute with densely ciliate margins; flowers 70-90 per head. Perianth 27-34 mm long, long-hirsute, cream and pink with greenish cream limb; limb 3-3.5 mm long, usually evenly elliptic. Pistil 38-54 mm long, pale yellow, glabrous except ovary; pollen presenter 1-1.1 mm long. Follicles obovate, 12-14 mm long, glabrous apart from long hairs across apex.