Closely resembles H. indicum, but distinguished by the heads on shorter stalks and therefore borne in more congested clusters than in H. indicum, in the shape of the involucre, campanulate in H. marmarolepis, cylindric-campanulate in H. indicum, and in the involucral bracts, less woolly on the backs than in H. indicum, and more loosely imbricate (hence the shape of the head).
Like H. indicum but flower heads campanulate and in tightly crowded clusters.