Small rosulate annual.. Leaves pale green, acicular, 1–2(–5) cm. long, 0.2–1.0 mm. wide, fenestrate, soon dying back.. Scapes very slender, numerous, radiating to form a dome-shaped mound, 1–12 cm. high, 0.2–0.3 mm. in diameter, 3–4-ribbed; sheaths shorter than the leaves, scarious, obliquely slit.. Capitulum hemispherical to dome-shaped, echinate, 2.5–4 mm. diameter, scarious, whitish to grey, the upper bracts often darker grey; involucral bracts as wide as the capitulum and radiating across its base, lanceolate with sharply acuminate tips, pale; floral bracts narrowly lanceolate, acuminate-aristate, flushed pale grey; receptacle columnar, glabrous to villous; flowers trimerous, pallid or flushed pale grey, 0.8–1.0 mm. long.. Male flowers: calyx spathate, the sepals free or ± connate, the tips acuminate; petals tiny, glandular; anthers black.. Female flowers: sepals equal, linear-lanceolate, concave, acuminate, the margins glabrous or with a few short hairs; petals linear, tipped with a rudimentary gland.. Seeds elliptic, 0.3 mm. long, brown, glossy, faintly reticulate.
Home