Eriocephalus brevifolius (Dc.) M.A.N.Müll.

Erect conical shrubs up to 1.2 m high. Old stems grey-brown to grey-black, displaying anomalous secondary growth, glabrous; young shoots grey, felty to shortly sericeous. Leaves opposite except flowering shoots where they are sometimes alternate, entire, linear, clavate, 3.0-4.5(-15.0) x 0.8-1.2 mm, with felty to shortly sericeous, permanent grey-green indumentum; long leaves on dolichoblasts slightly falcate to the inside, apex obtuse; short leaves on brachyblasts decussate, imbricate, ± naviculate. Capitula heterogamous radiate, solitary on brachyblasts or in umbellate racemes, terminaly on dolichoblasts and brachyblasts, 4-5 mm long; peduncles 5-10(-20) mm long, permanently felty. Involucral bracts 5, broadly lanceolate to ovate, flattened, 3.0-3.5 x 1.3-2.0 mm, central part triangular, green with broad, membranous, straw-coloured to red-purple margin, abaxially appressed, shortly sericeous. Paleae: those of marginal florets partly connate, forming cylindrical sheath with free lobes, sheath abaxially long-lanate, hairs septate, adaxially glabrous, 4-5 mm long; those of disc florets narrowly lanceolate, flattened, 2.2-5.0 x 0.1-0.3 mm, transparent, membranous, apices fringed, only abaxially long-lanate. Ray florets 2 or 3, female, 3.0-3.5 mm long, with conspicuous 2.6-3.2 mm long, white lamina. Ovary(and cypsela)oblong, flattish, trigonous, densely long-lanate. Seed obovoid, slightly flattened, 1.3-2.1 mm long. Disc florets (7-)10-14(-16), functionally male with sterile ovary, 4.0-4.5 mm long; corolla red-purple, trumpet-shaped, 5-lobed, 4.0-5.5 mm long. Stamens 5, ± as long as corolla tube, exserted 0.5 mm at most. Style truncate, rarely with sweeping hairs. Receptacle after anthesis with dense, brown, long-pilose indumentum between involucral bracts and connate marginal paleae. Flowering time: correlated with the rainy season, reaching a peak from July to September.