Lachnaea pomposa Beyers

Erect, moderately branched shrub up to 1.7 m tall, single-stemmed or multistemmed at base; reseeder or resprouter. Branches ascending, stout, rigid, ridged below leaf bases, usually glabrous but occasionally sparsely adpressed hairy towards apex (specimens from Touwsberg), leafy, becoming naked with prominent leaf scars. Leaves alternate, ascending to patent, occasionally reclined, those below inflorescences patent to reclined with their tips turned upwards, imbricate, sessile, amphistomatic, glabrous, narrowly elliptic to elliptic, narrowly ovate to widely ovate or narrowly obovate to obovate, 7-38 x 2-19 mm, coriaceous, glaucous; adaxially flat, midveined or subnervate; abaxially flat, faintly nervate; apex mucronulate, obtuse, rounded or acute; base rounded, cuneate or attenuate. Inflorescence a terminal, more than 50-flowered, ebracteate capitulum, 25-55 mm diam., basally enclosed by foliage leaves, pedunculate; peduncle 1-10 mm long, shortly sericeous. Receptacle subconical to conical, 4-12 x 2.8-6.0 mm, puberulent. Flowers sessile, subactinomorphic, cream, occasionally with blueish tint, sweet-scented. Hypanthium 9-20 mm long, circumscissile 1/5-1/3 from base; upper portion narrowly funnel-shaped, silky hirsute or hirsute-tomentose outside, inside densely hairy at mouth, rest adpressed hairy; basal portion ellipsoid, ovoid or obovoid, sericeous or silky hirsute outside, glabrous inside. Sepals patent, ± equal, adaxially and abaxially sericeous, ovate or elliptic, 3.5-9.0 x 1.6-5.3 mm, apex acute. Stamens exserted; outer, antesepalous whorl arising at base of sepals, usually the longest; inner, antepetalous whorl arising at rim of hypanthium; filaments 1.3-5.0 mm long; anthers ellipsoid to spheroid, 0.4-1.5 mm long. Floral scales exserted, arising at mouth of hypanthium immediately below antepetalous stamens, obscured by dense hairs in mouth, narrowly obovoid to obovoid or ellipsoid, 0.4-0.9 mm long, hirsute at apex, occasionally glabrous (specimens from Matroosberg), at first yellow later translucent in fresh state. Ovary ellipsoid, 1.4-3.0(-5.0) mm long, tufted at apex, occasionally sericeous in upper half. Style filiform, 8.3-18.2 mm long, to upper 74 adpressed hairy, lower portion glabrous. Stigma brush-like.