Cyathula divulsa Suess.

Herb (duration unknown), erect and apparently little branched, lax in habit, 0.3–1 m... Stem and branches slender, terete and striate below to bluntly or clearly trigonous above, greenish-to purplish-brown, ± densely furnished with spreading, ascending or sometimes deflexed brownish multicellular hairs, older parts ± glabrescent; nodes distinctly swollen, stem and branches contracted above the nodes or sometimes not.. Leaves large, broadly elliptical, 5.5–18 × 3.5–10 cm., acute or acuminate at the apex, at the base abruptly narrowed or cuneate into the 1–2 cm. petiole, moderately pilose to tomentose on both surfaces with the hairs longer on the venation of the lower surface.. Inflorescences terminal on the stem and branches, each a lax spiciform thyrse formed of very shortly stalked flat-or cuneate-based hemispherical condensed cymes 1.5–2 cm. in diameter, the entire thyrse ± 3 cm. wide and up to 20 cm. long (but often less), the lower cymes increasingly distant in fruit; peduncle very short or up to 7 cm. long, both it and the inflorescence-axis densely brownish pilose; bracts deltoid-or lanceolate-ovate, 4–6.5 mm., membranous, densely pilose and scarcely shining, shortly aristate with the excurrent midrib; bracteoles similar but longer from the long-excurrent uncinate-tipped midrib, 7.5–8 mm.; ultimate divisions of the lateral cymes formed of a central fertile flower subtended on each side by a triad of one fertile and two lateral modified flowers, or all of the latter sometimes missing.. Outer 2 tepals narrowly lanceolate, thinly to densely (and matted) long-pilose, 6.5–8 mm., both with a long uncinate awn formed by the excurrent midrib, narrowly hyaline-margined, with or without 1–2 fainter lateral nerves at the base which are evanescent below or a little above the middle of the tepal; inner 3 tepals shorter, 5.5–7 mm., narrowly lanceolate, more broadly hyaline-margined, thinly long-pilose to densely lanate, 3–5(–6)-nerved with the inner 2 nerves meeting the midrib below the apex but the outer much shorter, the midrib excurrent in a short rather fine and sharp mucro.. Modified flowers of 2–4 narrowly lanceolate bracteoliform processes and 2–4 uncinate spines.. Filaments delicate, 2.75–3 mm., pseudostaminodes 1–1.5 mm., broadly cuneate-obovate, thinly to densely lanate-pilose around the margins, dentate at the plane or incurved apex, with a subulate or finely fimbriate dorsal scale.. Ovary obovoid, thickened above, 1.75–2 mm.. Style slender, 2–4 mm.. Capsule shortly cylindrical, 2.5 mm., with a hardened rim around the concave apex.. Seed ovoid, 2.25 mm., brown, almost smooth.