Helichrysum simulans Harv. & Sond.

Dwarf twiggy shrublet ±50-150 mm high, main stem gnarled, ±10 mm diam., branches stiffly erect, bare below, branchlets grey stringy-felted, closely leafy. Leaves erect, imbricate, 3-6 x 1-2 mm, linear (narrowly spathulate, up to 3 mm broad), apex more or less obtuse, slightly recurved, base broad, shortly decurrent, both surfaces enveloped in grey stringy tissue-paper-like tomentum. Heads homogamous, cylindric, ±5-6 x 2-3 mm, solitary or 2-3 together at the branchlet tips, closely surrounded by leaves webbed to outer involucral bracts. Involucral bracts in 5 series, graded, closely, imbricate, inner equalling flowers, not radiating, all obtuse, convex, backs somewhat woolly, light or dark golden-brown, sometimes red above the stereome, semi-pellucid. Receptacle nearly smooth. Flowers 11-16. Achenes not seen, ovaries with myxogenic duplex hairs. Pappus bristles many, equalling corolla, scabrid, bases cohering lightly by patent cilia.