Echiostachys incanus (Thunb.) Levyns

A perennial herb with a thick, somewhat woody underground stem, which gives off tufts of leaves and flowering shoots annually, 40 cm high in vigorous specimens, but usually less; flowering shoot covered with rather weak hairs. Basal leaves linear, attenuated at both ends, acute, up to 22 cm in length and 15 mm in width, but usually smaller, with rather long scattered hairs on both surfaces; leaves on the flowering axis smaller than the basal ones and lanceolate near the flowers. Flowering portion of the inflorescence from 2.5 to 15 cm long and from 2.5 to 3 cm wide, flowers shortly pedicelled. Bracts rather small, subtending each cymule. Calyx about half to three-quarters as long as the corolla; sepals linear-oblong, obtuse, densely covered with upwardly directed hairs, almost doubling its length in the fruiting stage, and with hairs standing out from the surface. Corolla with a narrow cylindrical basal portion, widening gradually in the upper part, about 6 mm long, hairy along the central vein of each lobe; white or cream colour, faintly scented. Stamens subequal, often one rather shorter than the rest, exserted, arising about one-third or one-half of the way up the corolla-tube, with a tuft of hairs at the point of insertion, hardly adnate. Style with spreading hairs in the lower portion. Each nutlet with a median ridge, the whole surface rugose-tuberculate, with short, stiff, glassy hairs arising from the larger tubercles.