Shrub or shrubby herb, rarely described as scandent, 0.1–1.8(–2.4) m high, with spreading branches; branches pubescent and glandular, densely leafy, leaves marcescent.. Leaves sessile, linear to narrowly lanceolate, 2–7 cm long, 0.2–0.6 cm wide, base not narrowing and sometimes hastate, half-amplexicaul, slightly auriculate (in type!), margins revolute, apex acute and mucronate, pubescent to glabrous and glandular above, white-tomentose beneath, faintly pungent.. Capitula 7–17 mm long, heterogamous, 5–20 together in fairly dense corymbs to 10 cm in diameter; stalks of individual capitula 2–13 mm long; phyllaries shiny white or silvery, often with a pink tinge at base, 4–5-seriate, ovate to lanceolate, 3–10 mm long, apex acute or erose, glabrous, stereome greenish; receptacle honeycombed.. Florets yellow, 150–475; outer florets in 1–2 rows, much fewer than the inner, tube filiform, 2–2.5 mm long, lobes 0.2–0.3 mm long, style 2.7–3 mm long; inner florets many, tube cylindrical, 2–3.5 mm long, lobes 0.4–0.5 mm long, glandular, anthers 1.3–1.7 mm long, style 3–4.2 mm long.. Achenes cylindrical, 0.6–0.7 mm long, glabrous (rarely pilose?); pappus white, 2–3 mm long.. Mesfin & Reilly state the capitula are homogamous, but in East African material there are 1–2 rows of female florets.
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