Eriocaulon dregei Hochst.

Robust perennial, the rosettes arising from a creeping and often branched rhizome, forming colonies. Leaves linear, (3-)10-25 cm long, up to 10 mm wide, the tips obtuse and terminating in a small, somewhat hardened knob. Scapes usually solitary, 5-23(-35) cm long, 0.8-1 mm in diameter, 5-to 7-ribbed, glabrous or with some short, white bristles between the ribs; sheaths usually shorter than the leaves, shortly obliquely split with a rounded limb which usually splits into 3 or more, spreading, papery lobes. Heads ± spherical, ±12 mm in diameter (mate heads smaller), dirty white; receptacle hemispherical, woolly hairy, most heads entirely or predominantly male. Involucral bracts shorter than the head, obovate-oblong, ±3 mm long, the outer obtuse and glabrous, the inner with broadly triangular tips with few white hairs, reflexing at maturity. Floral bracts oblanceolate, ±3 mm long, thin, spongy along the keel, flushed grey, densely white-hairy above, acute. Flowers 2-4 mm long. Male flowers: sepals 3, ±3 mm long, united below into a spathe, dark grey, 2 lobes slightly keeled, the third flat, rounded, all with white hairs at the tips; petals 3, shortly exerted from the sepals, unequal, with white hairs on the inner surface; anthers ±0.3 mm long, black. Female flowers: sepals 3, boat-like, 2-4 mm long, the keel spongy, sometimes expanded into a wing, grey, scarious, with white hairs along the margins; petals 3, narrowly oblanceolate-oblong, two 1.7-2.2 mm long, the third slightly larger, with white hairs on the inner surface. Seeds broadly ellipsoid, ±0.6 mm long, mid brown, smooth with a net-like surface pattern; ripe seeds rather rare.