Dissocarpus paradoxus (R.Br.) F.Muell. ex Ulbr.

Erect or decumbent, rounded, much-branched shrub to 50 cm high. Branches woolly. Leaves semiterete, slender, 5–15 mm long. Flowers connate in groups of 8–16 in dense woolly glomerules. Infructescence a persistent densely woolly ball 10–15 mm diam.; fruting perianths fused in lower 2/3 into a woody spherical mass. Lobes emergent, erect; spines 5, slender, 3–6 mm long, erect or spreading, hard, woolly at first, arising at base of each lobe.

Often growing in clay or on scalded zones, but also in other soils.