Eriocephalus punctulatus Dc.

Slender, erect, sometimes spreading shrubs, 0.5-1.5 m high. Old stems dark grey, displaying anomalous secondary growth; young shoots green to dark red to golden brown, dense felty indumentum with glands in cavities on leaves; older branches brown to brown-grey to dark grey; branches thin with relatively long internodes; brachyblasts short-lived, up to 20 mm long. Leaves mostly opposite, but alternate on flowering shoots, linear to almost clavate, (2-)4-7(-28) x 0.3-0.5 mm, entire to pinnatisect with up to 3 lobes, adaxially flattened, but concave towards base, abaxially convex, bright green, initially with felty indumentum, glabrescent, apex obtuse to acute, base semi-amplexicaul. Capitula heterogamous radiate, umbellate-racemose, terminal on young shoots and brachyblasts, 3-4 x 3 mm; peduncles (3-)5-8(-16) mm long, felty to glabrous, thin (0.2 mm in diameter), longer than subtending leaves. Involucral bracts 4 or 2.8 x 1.7 mm, outer slightly keeled, inner more flattened, with green, herbaceous, central part and broad membranous margin. Paleae: those of marginal florets connate into a cylindrical sheath, 3 mm long, thickly coriaceous, margins fringed, abaxially densely lanate, hairs septate, adaxially glabrous; those of disc florets oblong to linear, 2.6 x 0.7-2.6 x 0.3 mm, margins fringed, abaxially densely lanate, adaxially glabrous, membranous. Ray florets 1-3, female, 3.9-4.2 mm long with cuneate lamina 1.5-1.9 mm long, mostly white or occasionally pale red-purple. Style branches flattened, apices acute. Ovary oblong, slightly flattened, with dense, lanate indumentum. Seed flattish, trigonous, obovoid, 1.3-2.1 mm long. Disc florets usually 7-10, functionally male with sterile ovary; corolla red-purple, 2.4-3.3 mm long; corolla tube trumpet-shaped to infundibuliform. Style not branched, apex globose, with sweeping hairs. Stamens 5, exserted at maturity. Receptacle after anthesis with long hairs between involucral bracts and marginal, connate paleae. Flowering time: correlated with rainfall, May to October with a peak from July to September.