Euchaetis longibracteata Schltr.

Shrubs 0.2-0.8 m tall, with several branches arising from a single stem at ground level. Branches erect, clustered or forked, glabrous, becoming leafless; bark smooth, brown. Branchlets erect, slender, clustered, puberulous, pale or tinged with red, well-clothed with leaves but not hidden. Leaves 9.5 mm long including the petiole 1 mm long, 2.5-3 mm broad, lanceolate-oblong, acute, erect or spreading, incurved above, alternate, margins thick, scattered with spiky hairs; narrowed at the base to a short puberulous petiole; adaxial surface glabrous, flat; abaxial surface glabrous, scabrid, pubescent or smooth with or without minute gland dots; midrib prominent with short spiky hairs. Inflorescence terminal, aggregate, conspicuously involucred; florets solitary or several on much reduced branchlets at the perimeter, pink, maturing from the centre outwards, many aborting, only one in each head may eventually ripen and produce seed. Involucral leaves conspicuous, crowded, longer than the stem leaves varying in length up to about 15 mm long and in breadth, the innermost becoming almost filiform, linear, acute, almost mucronate, long petiolate, pale or whitish and glabrous on the upper surface, the under surface green towards the apex and clothed with a minute erect pubescence; margins minutely ciliolate. Bract one to each floret, varying from the outermost 12 mm long, linear-oblanceolate, green-tipped, to the innermost 3 mm long, tapering, acute, pale, ciliate, withering towards the apex. Bracteoles two, 1 mm long, 0.5 mm broad, lanceolate, acute, ciliate, glabrous or puberulous, translucent. Calyx lobes five, 2-2.5 mm long, 1.1 mm broad, lanceolate, acute, glabrous or puberulous, ciliate, translucent, reddened below. Petals five, 2-3 mm long, 0.7 mm broad, pink; limb 1 mm long, 0.6 mm broad, oblong, glabrous, apiculate; claw 2 mm long, 0.7 mm broad, elliptic, transversely bearded above, margins ciliate at the sides. Staminodes five, vestigial, 0.1 mm long at the outer base of the disc. Filaments five, becoming 0.8-1.1 mm long, acicular, glabrous. Anthers five, before anthesis 1.1 mm long, 0.7 mm broad, wine-coloured; apical gland 0.1-0.12 mm diam., globose. Pollen 42-44 µ long, 18-20 µ broad, oblong. Disc 5-sinuate, scarcely exceeds the ovary, does not close over it, dark green, exudes nectar. Stigma 0.2 mm diam., capitellate, green. Style at first deflexed, becoming 1.4 mm long, glabrous. Ovary 5-carpellate, 0.7 mm diam., apices obtuse, rugulose, reddened. Fruit 5-carpellate, 6 mm long, 4.3 mm diam., calyx lobes persisting, the base of the calyx forming a pedicel 1.5 mm long, glabrous; gland dots inconspicuous, few; horns erect, short, entire. Seed 3.8-4.2 mm long, 1.5 mm broad, black, shining; aril mostly black.